Words to Live by
by Lariren-Shadow
Summary: A collection of Zutara one shots each based off a different word in alphabetical order. Z is for Zoo. Complete.
1. Acknowledge

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

**A/N**: A take on Written Parody's ABCs of Zutara request. A is for Acknowledge.

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Toph wasn't the first person to insinuate that Katara and Zuko liked each other. Sure she could feel their pulses race when they were close but Katara's pulse had raced out of anger and his slightly out of fear at the beginning. She just thought it was a lingering effect of the past.

Sokka, though admittedly brilliant at military strategy, hadn't even been able to pick up on Aang's crush on Katara. He lived in a world where boys did like Katara but she seemed to only notice the blatant ones, like Jet. Even then she had ended up hating him so clearly she wasn't interested in boys. Yet. He was looking forward to that.

Aang, well, Aang was confused about how he felt in general. He had a crush on Katara but at the same time he wasn't sure if he liked kissing her. It felt…not wrong, but not exactly right. Maybe it was just the fact that they were under a lot of stress trying to defeat the Fire Lord. Surely Katara would come around later, right?

Suki, however, was new. While she could guess at the animosity between the two she noticed little things. Zuko seemed obsessed with getting Katara to just look at him without contempt in her eyes. Katara, for her part, had a grudge the size of Kyoshi Island against the prince whilst not being able to take her eyes off Zuko. This attraction only became more pronounced after their little field trip. Katara almost tripped over herself to be nice to Zuko as he smiled more and more at her.

Finally she had had enough. She was going to confront one of them about this to see what was going on. They were having a break on the beach (or "Aang and Katara practicing waterbending" if Zuko was asked). Needless to say Zuko was the target of her questioning.

"So," she began as she plopped herself next to him, "how long have you liked Katara?"

His eyes went wide before stuttering, "I don't, she doesn't, we're-"

"Save it Sparky. I know you had a girlfriend and something happened but you keep staring at her and obsessing about her."

He put his head in his hands. "Am I that obvious?"

"Yeah. So is Katara though."

"Really?"

"Are you kidding? She pays extra attention to you, had that long-standing grudge, and now can't help but make things up to you. She has it bad, I just don't think she knows it yet." Suki watched his face as he stared at the waterbender in question. She saw him begin to smile a little.

"So there's hope?"

"Of course there is. Just don't mess things up. She's practically my sister so I'm watching you."

"Why is it when I get one girl to stop suspecting me of something another decides to do the same?" He huffed.

"You're just lucky that way."

* * *

**A/N**: This is the first in series of each chapter being inspired by a word for each letter of the alphabet. I have the B and C pretty much down, but the rest I'm not so sure about. I have a whole list but I'm only in love with two or three other letters so any suggestions are appreciated!


	2. Boy

**Disclaimer**: I don't own.

**A/N:** Here is the next word: boy. Thank you to my reviewers for ideas!

Katara was at the age where she began to notice the difference between a boy and a _boy_. Boys were like her brother: brash, smelly, annoying, and pretty much something she vaguely detested at times but still put up with. _Boys_ were very different. Sure they still smelled, but it was a nice smell, of course they could be annoying but for very different reasons. _Boys_ were annoying for entirely other reasons such as wondering if they liked you or wondering if they were using you for things (at least that was Katara's experience). _Boys _could also be kind and sweet, or that's what those romance scrolls she had read while in Ba Sing Se implied.

Her own encounters with _boys_ were few and far between. Haru wasn't exactly a _boy_, he was close though. He had smelled clean but she just wasn't attracted to him. When she saw him before the invasion with that silly mustache any notions of her being attracted to him vanished. Those feelings just got worse when she began taking care of him at the Western Air Temple.

Jet had definitely been a _boy_. In fact he was the first boy her age she had a crush on (when she was younger she had had a crush on Bato, something that Sokka would never ever let her forget). She had thought he was going to be her hero: take her away from the stupid Fire Nation and protect her while still needing her to be strong in her own right. She had happily wondered what it would be like living in a tree house before being betrayed by him. His coming back and needing her help didn't make her crush any better. There were days she still wondered if he made it out of Lake Laogai.

Aang…well Aang desperately wanted Katara to see him as a _boy_. Katara's problem with that wasn't so much the idea that Aang wanted her; no, the problem was that he was a gangly twelve year old who could annoy her as much as her brother. She thought of Aang as a friend and brother, she hadn't considered him to be a potential _boy_ until Sokka commented on how powerful a bender Aang is. Aang's kissing her hadn't helped matters. It didn't feel right; nothing like what all those stories had told her a kiss should feel like.

Then there was Zuko. She had absolutely no idea how to even categorize him in her head. On one hand he had been the enemy who had chased her and her friends around the world and tried to capture them. On the other his current state of seeking redemption made him more helpful than any other member of their little gang. He had helped all of them, herself included, with more than she thought possible. As she watched him firebending with Aang her mind recognized that he was quite attractive. In a very good way.

_I wonder what it would be like to run my hands over his chest_. The words whispered across her mind causing her to start. Where had that come from? She kept watching the pair firebend and suddenly realized what she had been ignoring before: Zuko, who smelled nice and worked hard to make sure everyone was taken care of, was a _boy_.

And she desperately hoped he saw her as a _girl_.


	3. Children

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: This actually didn't turn out at all how I wanted it to. As in I had an entirely different idea for children. I have a pretty good idea for d and f, e however is not happening. This is where I also warn about these not being in chronological order and that updates should be regular but might not be. I should be working on my thesis. I did pass my language exam though! Thanks to all my reviewers!

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He stopped creeping at the shuffle of a phantom foot. His hands waved behind his back to warn his two little protégés to halt as well. He waited and listened. Thinking the possible person had moved on, he turned to look at the boys following him. They were looking at him with wide bright eyes and he brought a gloved finger to his covered mouth, reminding them to keep quiet.

He turned the corner, knowing this was going to be the hardest place to sneak past, seeing that no one was there he-

"Daddy?" Zuko looked down to see his three-year-old daughter poking her head out of her room, eyes wide and bottom lip trembling. He turned quickly to the two following him, motioning them to hide while pulling the cloth covering away from his mouth.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" He asked as she ran to him and attached herself to his legs and beginning to cry. He bent down to pick her up, noticing how strong her hold on his legs was.

"I had a dream where a h-h-hippo-cow was going to e-eat me like Uncle Sokka said!" She wailed into his shoulder.

"Shhh," he soothed, "I'm here, nothing can get you," he turned around while rubbing her back. He noted that the younger of his two boys had decided that hiding half behind one of the pillars in the hall was a good idea while the elder crouched mostly out of sight behind a vase._ Good, at least they're trying_ he thought as he began to bring his daughter into her room. "I'll tuck you in and-"

"N-n-no! The m-m-monster will get me in there! I want you and Mommy!" She was sobbing into his shoulder and all he wanted to do was comfort her but he still had other things he was supposed to be doing. Like making sure his sons stayed where they were hiding.

Down the hallway the door to his rooms opened and Katara emerged, looking to see what was wrong. He had always wondered how she knew whenever one of their children started crying. "Zuko, what's wrong?"

"She had a bad dream based on some story Sokka told her," he said while the little girl began to lunge at Katara.

"Oh baby, tell me what's wrong," Katara soothed as she took her daughter in her arms. She also took in the completely black outfit Zuko had on and how she had missed him leaving their rooms. She gave him a look that he knew meant, "don't move, you are in trouble" while slightly bouncing the girl in her arms.

"The hippo-cow is going to eat me Mama!"

"Uncle Sokka is in a lot of trouble if he told you that. But right now I'm going to tuck you into my bed, where I know there aren't any hippo-cows, and you're going to try to go to sleep while I talk with Daddy out here for a little, all right?" The girl nodded, latching her arms around Katara's neck to hold on.

Zuko knew he was out of options. He couldn't leave. If he did he would still have to face her in the morning and Katara left to her own thoughts for a night was not good for him. Without turning around he commanded "stay where you are," to the hidden boys. Both went back to their hiding places as they had began to emerge when their mother left.

Katara returned with a determined look in her eyes. Zuko stood his ground; he had done nothing wrong. He was Fire Lord he could sneak around his own Palace if he wanted to! He could even teach his sons how to do it as well! He would even try teaching his daughter when she was old enough. As Katara stalked closer about half of his bravado left him. Katara could be scary when determined, especially when she was also ready to chew out her brother for giving her child nightmares.

"You can come out now," she said in a deathly calm voice. The boys knew this voice; it was the voice that meant, "you should brace yourself because you will get a lecture that involves the phrase 'I'm very disappointed in you.'" The younger of the two had only heard this tone once before but he had not liked it then. They scurried out to stand on either side of their father, heads down and shoulders slumped. "Why don't you tell me what you three are doing?"

"We were just sneaking-"

"Dad said he knew how to-"

"I was teaching them some of the stealth-"

"Children!" Katara commanded.

"Thank you, dear, as I was-"

"That includes you too Zuko." Her voice was like the ice she could create. All three males of the royal family gulped. "Now, I can see that you were trying to sneak around. Would this have anything to do with the midnight food festival I distinctly remember telling you three that the boys couldn't attend?"

"No, of course not, dear," she bristled at his term of endearment, "I was merely teaching them what I knew."

"Which would explain why you're dressed in black too."

"Yes."

"And why you were out here when Kyra came out."

"Of course."

"And why you were trying to sneak past our door to leave the Palace through the passageway off the family wing."

"That's correct." He responded without thinking. He cursed his inability to think before speaking as she smiled triumphantly.

"Boys, did your father promise to take you out tonight, even after I said you couldn't go?" Both nodded, there was no lying to their mother. "You know why I told you you couldn't go, right?" Again they nodded. "Will you ever start a bending match at the dinner table again?" Both shook their heads, biting back comments of 'but he started it!' Now was not the time to argue about that.

The younger of the two, who desperately wanted to go, broke their silence. "Please Mommy, I really want to go! I promise to hold Dad's hand the whole time!" Katara's hard expression softened at his plea.

"You both know if I let you go that you two will still be helping washing dishes in the kitchen, right?" They nodded. "All right, you can go, as long as you stay with your father and if I hear about either of you two running off you will be helping for a month in the kitchens." Each boys face broke into a huge grin. "Now go get changed, if you're going you should at least go in your normal clothes." They took this as a dismissal and turned and ran to their rooms to get changed. "As for you," she rounded on Zuko, "after you change you're going to wake up Sokka and take him with you."

"But he'll want to stay forever." Zuko groaned.

"It's part of your punishment for trying to sneak the boys out. And part of Sokka's as well because you're going to make sure to be back before midnight, all four of you as well as making sure he only eats one sample from each vendor." Zuko scowled at his wife. "Come on, the boys will be back soon. You can even have them wake Sokka up if you want," she said before kissing his check.

He was going to be stuck babysitting his children and brother-in-law for the next few hours. He was pretty sure Katara knew the best punishments.

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**A/N2**: Longest letter so far! I'm sure Kyra has been used for a steam-baby before. In case you're wondering, I do have names for the boys. The elder is Irzan (yeah, it sucks, but I wanted it to have a z and still be sort of named for Iroh) and the younger is Marukku. I epic fail at names.


	4. Drool

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Thanks to **Kimberly T.** for the idea! Also thanks to **SnoopyGirl213** because, in away, desire also plays into this. And general thanks to all my reviewers! This fic is also being bumped up to T.

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Zuko felt something tickling his nose. He was half conscious, not wanting to open his eyes. The sun had risen a while ago but he was warm and comfortable and having a good time remembering the dream he had featuring Katara and himself doing things he could never hope of happening in real life. The tickling increased as he felt a breeze that smelled strongly of the sea. The breeze also cooled the wet spot on his shirt. _Wait, wet spot?_ Deciding this needed to be investigated he forced his eyes open to see his room at the beach house and a mass of dark brown hair belonging to o the star of his dream. Moreover, he deduced, she was drooling on him as she used him as her pillow.

Fighting the first happy thought of _Katara's in my bed_ he pieced together what lead up to them breaking into the beach house. The storm had become worse after the confrontation with Yon Rha forcing them to find shelter. He had known Ember Island was close and made the possibly disastrous decision to take refuge in his house as opposed to a cave. Katara was just sitting in Appa's saddle, looking almost lost and he already knew she was sleep deprived and hungry on top of being wet and cold; she needed dry clothes, a warm meal, and sleep.

He managed to land Appa in the courtyard and convinced the bison to find shelter somewhere out of the rain and, hopefully, return in the morning while Katara gathered what they brought. She stood under the overhang while he tried to manhandle the weather shutters down until he gave up and kicked them down. The kitchen seemed like the best bet for what he needed and, after a bit of searching he played off as not having been there in years, he found the room. After lighting a fire in the hearth, he watched as Katara took out their spare set of clothing as well as their sleeping gear to dry. Zuko tried not to specifically watch her but he was waiting for her to do _something_.

"How about I make us some food?" He offered as he watched her fuss over spreading out their things to dry. He had already steamed himself dry and wondered when Katara was going to bend the water off her.

"Sure," she answered listlessly.

Zuko proceeded to fumble through cleaning some pots, getting the supplies they had together and sorting out what was waterlogged and what was salvageable, and finally presenting a rather pitiful looking soup and rather (thankfully) weak tea.

Besides the rain there was silence. He watched her gracefully move her hand to bend the water from her clothes before she ate without comment. He really wanted her to say something but was at a loss as to how to get her to speak. Anything he thought of saying sounded wrong. Not to mention that his half thoughts as to why he should be worrying and caring about her so much which he pushed from his mind whenever he looked at her. She was beginning to slightly shake which troubled him.

"I'm going to find us some extra blankets," Zuko wasn't sure that leaving her alone was a good idea but dry blankets seemed like a better one.

Upstairs he quickly found his room where he knew there had been a trunk full of what he sought. He was shaking out the second one when the floor creaked and he spun around, ready to defend himself. Katara stood in the doorway the only feature betraying her was the watery sheen in her eyes when lightning lit the room.

He had no idea what to do. His first thought was _what would Uncle do?_ Which was _make tea_. He'd done that and it hadn't helped. Azula was no help at all, she would have probably have called Katara weak. _Put the blanket around her and hold her_ whispered his mother's voice. That was all he could go on and did just that.

Wrapping her tightly as they sat on the bed did it. She started crying and babbling about what happened and all he could do was hold her. Somehow, he wasn't sure how, they ended up curled on the bed letting sleep take them.

Now, in the light of day with a drool-covered shirt, he wondered how he could get out of this position without her knowing. No matter what he did, if she woke up with him she would yell at him. Everything would somehow be his fault and he desperately wanted to move past that. Trying to gently maneuver himself out from under her failed horribly as she groaned and burrowed her head into him, trying to fend off wakefulness.

He watched her open her eyes and take in the room. Suddenly her eyes go large while taking in her pillow.

"I drooled on you," was all she had to offer and he hoped that was a good sign. "Zuko, where-"

"My family's home on Ember Island. We haven't used it in some time, no one ever comes here," she seemed satisfied with the answer but he rushed on, not wanting to insight her anger. "I'll go make some breakfast. Then why don't you stay here and I'll go get everyone else? We can hide out here until the comet." Maybe providing for the group would make her forgive him if yesterday didn't.

* * *

Katara watched him retreat out of the room. Not once had he judged any of her actions, not once had he questioned her. He just let her do what she needed and took care of her. She missed his warmth and, while going back to sleep sounds wonderful for her slightly aching head, she can't get comfortable again.

Instead she trudged down to where she sort of remembers the kitchen to be to find a bowl of something that could have been porridge if done right as well as all the things needed for her to make tea. She smiled at all this because she's pretty sure that the others are eating about the same thing. As she helped herself to a bowl she realizes something far more important: she doesn't hate Zuko anymore. Besides that she wants to tell him and hold him again. Along with that part of her also really wants to apologize for drooling.


	5. Eyes

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

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Walking into the room Zuko saw one of the most beautiful and most terrifying scenes in his life. Katara was in the bed, propped up with pillows, holding and cooing at a bundle of red in her arms. She looked a little haggard but had the most amazing smile on her face. She looked up at him with the same smile. "Come meet our son." _Our_ son, she said, _his_ son he thought walking over to the pair.

"He's so tiny."

Her smile turned into a smirk. "He didn't feel that way a few hours ago. You can hold him you know."

"I'll drop him."

"You're not going to drop him. Here, sit next to me if you're so worried."

"I'm not worried but dropping him, well it could somehow effect his future. We talked about this I know. If I ever do something that you disapprove of, or whatever words you used, you'll water whip me into next week."

"And not heal you when I'm done and you'll sleep on the floor."

"The last part will last maybe a da-ow!"

"You don't get to complain about any pain for a long time," she glared at him, still cradling their son in her right arm. She patted the bed next her. "Come on."

He sat next to her, looking at the red bundle in her arm. He was so…breakable. And he looked so safe where he was.

"Here, support his head," she instructed placing the baby in his arms. "I know you looked over some of the scrolls I purposely left lying around about babies."

"Minx." However he tried to imitate the pictures he had. He took a good look at his son for the first time. He had wisps of black hair on his head, his eyes were closed, and his checks were chubbier than Zuko imagined they would be. He could see ten fingers.

"He has ten toes and everything else as well," Katara whispered as Zuko moved to try to unwrap the babe. "You'll see the rest soon enough, but he's quiet now and trying to redress him will probably make him fussy."

He nodded as he brushed his finger on his son's check. The contrast in colors didn't surprise him: his child's skin tone was darker than his but lighter than Katara's. Then his son opened his eyes.

"Hi there, I'm your fa-," for a second Zuko paused considering his choice of words while small blue eyes looked up at him, "dad. I'm your dad. He has your eyes."

Katara placed her head on Zuko's shoulder as she looked down at her son. "He might, he might not."

"They're blue."

"In the Water Tribe most babies have blue eyes. Sometimes they change in the first few months. There were a few with grey eyes and a whole family who had brown ones." She sighed and kissed his check. "Besides, he could still be a firebender. Didn't that guy you brought back from the Boiling Rock with my dad have green eyes?"

"He did and he could firebend."

"See? Nothing to worry about besides a few years of both of us trying to get him to bend our respective elements," she teased.

"He's warm," she looked at him as if asking 'so?' before he continued. "Warmer than either of Sokka and Suki's kids when I held them. I think he could be a firebender."

"You said it yourself, he has blue eyes. He could be a waterbender."

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**A/N**: Thanks to everyone that has reviewed and favorited and added this story to their alerts! To **:** yes I did mean to change tenses but that was also mostly because I happened to be reading something that was written in the present tense before writing the last part and for some reason present tense sounded better at the time. In addition, this was one of the letters where, after struggling with it, I ended up with two different ideas (one of which popped into my head halfway through this one) so I was thinking of, after getting through the initial 26 redoing some of the letters with other ideas. Thoughts?


	6. Fate

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Look I wrote characters other than just Katara and Zuko! I noticed I kept just writing them and made it a point to include others in this one. Thanks again to everyone for reading! Also don't expect updates this soon really again. I do have G and I done, H is almost there.

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Zuko couldn't fault Sokka or Suki for the fact that they had to find a place to land. There was no way they could continue to fly the airship in the dark, not with the wind picking up as well. They possibly could have made it to Omashu for their scheduled stop if they had left Kyoshi on time, but Suki's parents were so happy to have Sokka there as well as Katara. They also didn't hold a grudge against Zuko for burning down the village, especially after he sent carpenters and other craftsmen to help with any additional rebuilding needs. Suki and Ty Lee also put in good words for him.

The longer stay, however, left them in the bind they were in now. They were headed to Ba Sing Se for, at least in Zuko's case, a diplomatic visit with King Kuei. The added benefit of seeing his Uncle and traveling with his friends played a large part as well. Aang had dropped Sokka, Suki, and Katara off two weeks before because he wanted to check all the Air Temples (and pick up Toph) before the meeting them in Ba Sing Se and the others, well, they had kindly refused to go with him and offered to stay the extra time with Zuko. Katara especially didn't want to travel with Aang anymore than they had to: while their break up happened months ago and mutual, there were still raw feelings between the two that lead to awkward situations.

Zuko ordered the crew to land near a village they spotted. There was an open field that easily fit the craft (a smaller version of the original, the Mechanist had redesigned the beast to be more compact and run on a much smaller crew). Once they landed and figured out who was staying with the craft, Zuko and the others broke off to find their own place to stay for the night.

"This looks vaguely familiar," Sokka commented stroking the chin beard he was cultivating.

"Maybe we passed through here with Aang?" Katara offered. Zuko and Suki shared a look. The look communicated their unspoken companionship of "we weren't there when that happened but at least I have someone who feels the same."

"It can't be any of the ports we were at. Maybe were we stopped for supplies after the incident with Jet?" Sokka offered.

Katara slightly flinched at the mention of Jet. "No. If it makes sense there aren't enough trees around for that. Maybe we're near the abbey we stayed at?"

"Katara that was pretty much a port," that was when Sokka noticed a man they had almost caught up with walking on the same path. A man wearing red shoes. "It's that crazy fortuneteller's village!" Sokka shouted.

"Really?" Zuko could have sworn he saw stars in Katara's eyes.

"Oh no, you harassed that woman enough. Not to mention you shouldn't trust in predictions. We'll find an inn, I think they had one, stay the night, and leave in the morning. If you even try to ask her what to eat for breakfast I'll…I'll," Zuko was amused with the look of indignation and slightly red coloring on Sokka's face.

"You'll what? You may be my big brother but at the moment you can't think of anything worth threatening me with. You're not doing your job right," Katara looked very pleased with herself.

Again Zuko and Suki shared a look. This was another look they had learned, especially whenever they were with the Water Tribe siblings. This was the "I can't believe they're at it again" look. Zuko gave Suki his "please deal with Sokka before he does something stupid" look.

"Sokka, why don't you and I go over things you can hold against Katara tonight while in bed?" She soothed as she put her arm around him.

"I'd like that."

Katara glared at the back of Suki's head.

"You know she's not going to help him come up with anything, right?" Zuko said.

Katara was silent for a moment. "No," she admitted.

"Think about what she said," Zuko watched the gears turn in Katara's head. "Oh," she uttered, "_oh_," as sudden realization dawned on her.

"I hope we get rooms far away from theirs," was all Zuko added. The foursome walked in relative silence to the village, only Suki's reassurances penetrated the quiet.

They made it to the village just before sunset and Sokka quickly set out to find the inn with Suki. Zuko and Katara decided to find some food for the group. They were lucky the stalls were closing later that day and Zuko tried to hurry her up as she muttered "stupid unripe mango" and "why is the stupid papaya cheaper than everything else?"

"I see you found your powerful bender," a voice remarked behind them. Katara jumped and spun around to face the woman.

"Aunt Wu! What do you mean?" Zuko wanted to pick Katara up and forcibly take her to the inn. He didn't want to have to listen Katara ask about her future. He was pretty sick of destiny by this point anyway.

"The one you'll have the great romance with, the firebender here. He's quite handsome too." Zuko now recognized the woman. She had used that voice on Uncle while he had been following Katara's scent. No wonder the shirshu lead them to her village, from the way Sokka talked Katara had spent hours with the woman.

"I-he-_Zuko _is the powerful bender I'm going to marry?" Zuko was pretty sure the look on his face could curdle cow-hippo milk, inside the cow-hippo.

"The Fire Lord, I should have known. Ah, but where would the fun in fate telling me every detail be?" Aunt Wu's voice had taken on a slight misty quality to it. Zuko wanted to hit her.

"Yeah, that would just be too easy. Come on Katara, we need to get food to Sokka before he tries to eat a pillow again." He placed his hand on the small of her back to guide her away from the woman.

He noticed Katara had that star-eyed look on her face again. Really that woman knew how to play the girl.

"You're my powerful bender," she murmured before throwing her arms around him. "I'm so glad its you!" She said into his chest. Zuko was lost. On the one hand, yes of course he'd considered Katara attractive and fun. On the other he didn't want _her_ to just start seeing him in any romantic way because some stupid crackpot told her to.

"Katara you don't have to listen to everything she says. She just saw us together and wanted to reassure you this was right."

She looked up at him slightly hurt. "Then why did I have to think for so many years that Aang was my powerful bender? I was miserable and half the time I was having these dreams about you-"

"Wait, what kind of dreams about me?" He really liked the blush that colored her checks.

"Oh, you know, those dreams that involve kissing and such," Zuko was pretty sure what the "and such" meant. "You just never seemed interested in me that way."

"I was plenty interested," he said before stopping himself. Really, he had become better at thinking before speaking. "I just never thought you were." Acting without thinking, yet again, Zuko kissed her.

It felt good and right and he would be damned if that fortuneteller was at their wedding.


	7. Growing

**Disclaimer:** Don't own.

**A/N:** This one might be a little more convoluted with the relation between the word and the fic. I'm not sure if I like it thought. Again, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorite, or added an alert for this collection! I have up through J done and K is about half way done and trying to come up with a coherent updating schedule as life is about to get hectic.

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"My Lord," Zuko had to stop himself from looking around to see whom the servant was addressing. 'Your highness' Zuko was used to, being the 'Lord' he was not. "I know you wish to sleep in your old room tonight, but do you know when you will wish to move into the Fire Lord's suite?"

Zuko's first reaction was "never" but he didn't think he could avoid the rooms entirely. Now was not the time for frivolous thinking. "When we have a definite confirmation that I am Fire Lord and my father's things have been moved into storage and the rooms cleaned." There that was a fair answer.

"What of your things in here, my Lord?"

Pain flared along with annoyance in Zuko. "I don't know all right! Right now I want to lie down and be left alone!" He shouted at the now cowering man. Before Zuko wouldn't have thought anything of making the man cower or the tone he used. Now a part of him, which sounded like a mix of his Uncle and Katara, urged him to apologize. He groaned. "I'm sorry I snapped at you…?"

"Ryo, sir."

"Thank you, Ryo. I'm tired and in pain and, like I said, I just want to be alone right now. In time I will have answers for you."

"Understandable my Lord. One more thing," Zuko really wanted to shove the man out of his room but he didn't think his healing chest would like that. "If you would think of what items you would like to have moved into your new rooms that would be most helpful. I doubt that your old chest of toys should be moved."

_His chest of toys…_oh the place he hid the things he didn't want Azula to find. "I'll try but please leave." Ryo bowed to Zuko before leaving. Zuko had to stop from flinging himself on to his bed. He knew that would only aggravate his injury so he gently eased himself down.

He wasn't sure if he had actually fallen asleep but he did hear his door opening. "Ryo if that's you-"

"It's me," Katara quickly said. He tried to sit up and noticed how she tried to rush over to him while still carrying a bowl of water. He wanted to laugh; she was a waterbender it didn't matter if any of it spilled. "Let me help you up."

He hated being babied. "I can do it myself," he snapped.

"I know you can but I don't want to have anything extra to heal on you," she quipped back. He knew she was right but that didn't mean he had to like it. "Speaking of which Ryo suggested I come and help you. Does it hurt more? I know I didn't get all of it healed out there and I was going to check on you later but he came and I-"

"Katara you're babbling."

"I'm not! I'm explaining why I'm here! Now be quiet while I work," she looked a little scary with her hand gloved in water and a determined look in her eye. But scary in a good way he decided. He bit back a moan as her water gloved hand moved over the bandages across his chest. She was relieving the worst of his pain and the cooling sensation that went along with her healing felt good as well.

After basking in the sensation for a while he opened his eyes to look at Katara. She looked about how he felt: tired and worn. She had circles under eyes and like she needed a bath and a good meal. Her clothes didn't look any better: they could use at least a wash and maybe a little mending from what he could see.

"Katara," she looked at his face when he said her name. "You should go take care of yourself." She opened her mouth to protest but he cut her off again. "At least take a bath and find a different pair of clothes."

"Where do you suggest I look for those? I didn't exactly bring a whole wardrobe with me when we came here." She sounded annoyed at his suggestion.

"Go get something of Azula's and if anyone questions you tell them I sent you."

She looked away from him and he saw her checks flare red briefly. "I already looked, she's apparently a little taller than me. Her clothes don't really fit right. Plus, no offense, but I don't really want to wear _Azula's_ clothes." He was impressed she had braved looking through his sister's things. He was pretty sure there was a body hidden somewhere in her room.

A thought occurred to him at that moment. "Why don't you take some of my old clothes?"

"Huh?"

"Most of the clothes in the drawers are from when I was thirteen. They don't fit anymore and you might as well use some of them," he offered.

"I…ok." She returned the water to the bowl before going over to the chest of drawers.

"The bottom two have shirts and pants," he really didn't want her to look around what had been where he kept his underclothes. He watched her grab a few items from each drawer, she seemed to be appraising each one. "You can change in the bathroom if you want. No one's coming back here for awhile."

"That sounds good," she walked quickly out of the room with the bundle of clothes clutched to her.

He was just falling back asleep when she came back out. She was dressed in one of his simple black short-sleeve shirts that appeared to be belted at least twice around her waist and a pair of grey pants that looked like they fit her a little better. A fierce possessiveness grew within him at the sight of her in _his _clothes. Never mind he had out grown them long ago, they were still _his_ and on _her_.

"I hope you don't mind but I'm going to take a few of the other things as well. Someone else from our group might need something mended," he couldn't fault her for being practical at a time like this.

"Sure," he didn't like how raspy his voice sounded then. He gulped. "Take whatever you need." He watched her take a few more items out of the drawers.

Arms full she came over to his bed and leaned down to kiss him on the check. "Thank you," she whispered, "for everything."


	8. Heat

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: There is a M rated version of this chapter is at katara_zuko and zutarotica on livejournal. I didn't want to bump up the whole rating for this fic for at least this chapter.

* * *

Katara had once heard heat described as being oppressive. Now she fully believed that assessment. Everyone reassured her this was one of the hottest summers recent memory but that didn't make her feel any better.

This wasn't her first summer here either. That honor belonged to the summer before Sozin's comet. It wasn't even her first as Fire Lady, she had held that title for two years now and lived in the Fire Nation for a year prior to marrying Zuko but she could not remember the heat being this intense. She did remember being told that her wedding day had been very mild for the time of year and now, now she understood why.

She'd forgone wearing silks for simpler linen but still she wasn't comfortable. Sitting through the maddeningly long dinner with the governors of the outer islands only added to her discomfort. Not only was the food spicy and warm but why was there so much damned fire in the room? Didn't anyone else feel warm? It took everything in her power not to freeze the water on the table and rub it all over her body. As their guests began to leave Katara's fantasy turned into one of her lying on the floor encased in ice. She happily sighed at the thought while Zuko looked at her curiously.

"Happy to see them leave?" He asked.

"I'm happy to not have to sit in that room anymore. Aren't you hot in that?" She didn't want to think of amount of layers he was wearing.

"You can help me out of it later, I have a few things I need to finish up before the morning. I'll try to be quick."

"Fine. I'm going to go peal off these clothes and run ice all of me."

He leaned in close and whispered in her ear "save some for me," sending a shiver down her spine. As appealing as that sounded she didn't want to think of how the heat he radiated being anywhere near her.

* * *

This was nice, this was even heavenly. Spread out on the floor she ran ice over her collarbone in just her wraps with her hair spread away from her neck. She could easily get out of them but the second her robes were off she collapsed onto the cool marble floor. The bowl of water next to her was left over from earlier when she had done the same thing.

Lost in her own little word she didn't hear Zuko come in or the rustle of fabric as he took off his heavy robe.

"I thought I could only make you sound like that," he teased plopping down next to her.

"Cold feels so good right now," she turned her head to see him only in his black training pants with a devious smirk on his face. "Would you like some?"

"Sure, I have a few ideas what I can do with it." She flicked her wrist and bent a stream of water over her head that she blew on to freeze. He plucked the icicle out of the air and began to mimic her movements.

Once again engrossed in her movements she jerked when she felt ice on her stomach. She propped her head up as much as she could to see Zuko running his ice over her. "What, _oh_," she moaned, "are you doing?"

"Writing my name." He bent his head to inspect what he wrote and blew on the water. She whimpered. "I think I need some practice. Now where can I do that?" His free hand stroked her cloth-covered thigh. "I think here would be good but I need to get raid of this," he began tugging on the wrap as he spoke.

"Too" breath "warm" pant.

"Then it's a good thing you can make ice." Katara could have sworn his eyes were on fire.

* * *

The next morning, as she lay tangled in the sheets, Katara felt the first cool breeze in weeks come through the open window.


	9. Igloo

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Igloo comes from **Kimberly T**. Story was actually one I had written before but its edited now. This is going to be the last update till Friday and then things are going to get a little bit...hit or miss for awhile. I have through L written though.

* * *

"You live here, aren't you supposed to know when storms are coming?" Zuko asked breathing fire on to his fingers.

"I'm sorry, your majesty, but sometimes the weather can change in the blink of an eye. It _was_ sunny and warm when we set out. How was I supposed to know that a blizzard would blow in?" She wasn't particularly happy about his tone. She wasn't particularly happy about _anything_ right now but that was beside the point. "Would you mind sharing some of the heat please?"

They were sitting in the ice and show shelter that Katara had waterbent once it became clear that trying to get back to her village in the storm was impossible. They had been going to see the old Fire Nation ship that was stuck in the ice. Zuko claimed he wanted to see if there was anything salvageable about the wreck and maybe he would try to take it back with him. Katara personally thought it was an act of penance on his part, trying to apologize for what his ancestors had done as well as for his own miniature invasion.

"I would, but there's nothing to burn," he complained. He stopped blowing fire into his hand and bent a flame to hold instead. She moved closer to him, holding her hands to his to try to warm them.

"Once Aang used some blubbered-seal jerky as firewood," Katara supplied. She was regaining feeling in her fingers.

"That would be helpful if we had any. Or any food for that matter." Katara was beginning to realize that a hungry cold Zuko was a grouchy Zuko.

"We do. Have food I mean. " He glared at her. _No she doesn't'_, he thought, _that would mean she-_, "its in my bag. You know, the one that you threw into the corner after I built this because you were holding it." He could have hit her. And not in the affectionate Toph way.

"Why did you bring food?"

"It takes time getting to the ship, then you wanted to look around, and then there was the time back. I figured we would get hungry at some point so I brought food…and a blanket. Well not a good one, but it was more for something to s-"

"YOU HAVE A BLANKET?"

"YOU HAVE FIRE AND YOU CAN RAISE YOUR BODY TEMPERATURE! Besides, it's not a great one, more just for sitting on. I wasn't going to grab it till I could feel my fingers to open the bag," he was glaring at her in a way she hadn't seen for years. It was his "I'm having murderous thoughts" glare. Quickly she got up and got her bag. Spilling the contents on to their laps she spread the blanket over their legs and handed him a piece of jerky. His glare lessoned and he conceded, mentally not vocally, that the blanket wasn't that thick. It was warm, he couldn't think of anything in the South Pole that wasn't in some way warm. But these things he was going to keep to himself.

Katara, meanwhile, was also chewing on her own piece of jerky and wondering how to stay alive out here. This wasn't the season for long storms, it wasn't even really the season for blizzards but that didn't mean that they didn't happen. There was a high probability that they would be able to make their way out of here by tomorrow. As long as the snow stopped sometime during the night and the day was bright she could get them back to her village. If they had to stay longer, well, she wasn't sure. Maybe they could try that ice fishing thing, but she had no real idea how thick the ice was here and they had nothing to fish with (besides her waterbending).

Finally the silence became too much for Zuko. Not that he couldn't stay silent, he just thought this one was rather tense and if he was going to be staying with Katara for at least a few hours it would be better spent without the tension. "This stuff isn't so bad," was the only thing he could think to say.

"Yeah, it travels well. Though I always have to make sure Sokka doesn't take it all when I make it. He tends to hoard the foods he likes. One time a tiger-seal charged our home because it could smell the food Sokka had," she laughed at the memory. "Dad was furious, the wall almost came down. Mom was impressed that he had managed to keep that much food hidden." It had become easier to share memories of her mother over the years, but only with certain people who were close to her.

Zuko, for his part, realized what it meant for her to be talking about her mother; he never really spoke about his (he was still at a loss as to where to even begin looking for her and, even three years later, his father had refused to give any clues). He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer. "Uncle would keep different kinds of tea all over his room. He had separate places for each kind. When I asked why he did that he told me it was to stop flavor contamination. I'm not sure if that's even possible, but then again I was only a waiter in his tea shop."

"I don't think I'm ever going to forget you in that apron."

He looked down at her, confused. "When did you ever see me in that?"

"Oh," she was blushing and hating it. "Actually, I'm sorry about this. Before we both ended up in the caves under Ba Sing Se I was heading back to the house we had been given and decided to stop in to the new teashop. I didn't know anything about it and when I saw you and your uncle I ran to tell whom I thought was Suki but turned out to be Azula. So…sorry," she decided it would be better to meet his eyes at the moment, "had I known that it was Azula-no, had I known it was Azula I would have tried to warn more people and you would have just stayed ignorant of her even being in the city. Well, until open rebellion."

"Had I not been thrown in there," he began slowly, "I don't think I would have had to chance to be Aang's firebending teacher. I probably would have just stayed there. So thanks, in a way."

They settled into a closer embrace. Katara really liked how warm Zuko was, especially with the wind that was howling outside and penetrating into their shelter.

"We should put our hoods up," Zuko said.

Katara knew they should, it kept more heat in your body, but she didn't want to. They were _inside_; surely there was something that could keep them warm besides that. _Well_, a little voice whispered, _there's always the pure body heat option_. She wasn't really sure how to feel about that option. _You could also let your hair down, that always annoyed you in the Fire Nation_. It made sense at the moment and, well, she would leave the other option for later.

Moving away from Zuko's warmth, Katara quickly unbraided her hair, running her fingers quickly through it before straddling Zuko's lap to take his topknot out. Zuko, for his part, had been surprised when she had let her hair down and was about to ask her about it but before he could he had a lap full of Katara. His brain, and other parts of his anatomy, decided to focus on _that_ instead of what she was doing (which wasn't bad either, especially when she ran her fingers through his hair). She slid off his lap (much to his inner protest) and went back to her position nestled against his side.

"I'm always warmer with my hair down than up," she stated as if this was an obvious fact. "I figured it would help a little."

As they readjusted to huddling together Zuko's arm snaked around Katara pulling her closer.

"Did you ever find the group causing all the trouble?" Katara asked turning to look up at him.

He was surprised she even remembered but then again, this was Katara. She remembered almost everything. They had been exchanging letters over the past several months, discussing everything they felt the need to share. He had started writing her after she had given him a few fantastic ideas the last time she had visited the Fire Nation and he needed someone without an agenda to bounce his ideas off of. The letters had become personal over time, little things worming their way into the correspondence.

"Yeah. Turns out Ozai had told them their pay would be suspended for a while to help fund his acquisition of new territory in the Earth Kingdom and they would get their money, and more, once he was successful. They just wanted to get paid. But I took healers with me when I went to try to find them. It worked better than I thought it would." He really was glad she had suggested that to him.

She smiled. "I knew it would," she sounded almost smug and Zuko wanted to do _something_ to make her sound less so. He thought of several ways he could do that, but he stopped most of those thoughts. It was fine to fantasize when he was alone but with the object of said fantasies curled up next to him he had to make them stop.

"Besides that whole uprising, how have you been? Your letters were shorter than usual," she missed the longer ones they had sent each other. They had grown closer and when she felt alone she could write him. Sure she could write everyone else or find Sokka or Suki but generally those too came as a matched set and she didn't particularly want to know someone was reading her letter to Toph or read a long ramble about animals from Aang.

He knew that lying to her was useless; she could detect a lie as well as Toph could. Especially from him. "I've been…I miss Uncle more than I thought I would. Agni I'm beginning to miss Ty Lee, it was nice having someone around who was close in age and not so serious." Mai had left some time ago; she had enough of following other people's wishes and wanted to live a little. She and Zuko had come to an understanding: neither of them were what the other needed or wanted. They had promised to keep in touch but Zuko had found it easier to write to Katara rather than write to Mai.

"It must be horrible for you to start missing '_Ty Lee'_."

"She's much nicer than you probably think she is."

"I know, I've talked with her on Kyoshi. She's," Katara searched for the right word to describe the flexible girl. "Intense. She's a lot to take for long periods of time." He chucked at that and Katara liked feeling the rumble of his chest beneath her. Truth be told she liked much more than that about her position but she didn't want to push this.

"She is," he said softly, resting his chin on her head. It was because of the cold he reasoned, nothing else.

As silence settled over them he desperately thought of something to ask her about. It wasn't that he didn't have a wealth of questions for you (are the warriors from the Northern Tribe still making advances towards you? Do you want me to teach them a lesson for you?) but he knew, he _knew_, he wouldn't be able to keep the jealously out of his voice. _Think Zuko_, he commanded his brain. That's it! "How are the little waterbenders doing?"

"Oh they're doing well. They like me better than Pakku but that's to be expected. I let them play games," she couldn't keep the smile out of her voice. She loved teaching the newest waterbenders of the Southern Tribe, she had left before any of them had started showing signs of bending and was surprised and happy to see she wasn't the last anymore.

"Is that why Aang would always complain about how hard Toph and I pushed him? Ow!" Katara managed to actually get some skin under all the layers he wore when she pinched him.

"He didn't complain all the time! Besides, you're just jealous I'm a better teacher than you are."

"Have it your way."

Once again they settled into silence. Katara kept trying to inch closer to Zuko, he was so warm. By the time she had managed to somehow burrow her nose into his side so she could just _feel _it again she had had enough. Embarrassment be damned as well as dignity! She wanted to be warm and direct body heat was the best way. Besides, she knew basic anatomy and it was just survival. Nothing more. At all.

_Then why are you not saying anything to him'_ An annoying voice asked in her head. _Oh shut up_, she told it moving, sadly, away from the warmth to be able to look Zuko in the eyes. "This isn't going to work. I'm cold still and I'm pretty sure at some point you will feel cold ," she jumbled the last part, feeling blood rushing to her checks. So much for bravely telling him.

"What do yo-oh. _Oh_," Zuko finally understood what she meant. A certain part of his body liked this option and he told it to calm down this was survival not fun. "Ok, um…what are we going to, uh, have between us and the ground?" He officially felt like a stumbling teenager again.

"We can take the side seams out of our jackets. Just one side. It will be annoying having half of it open when walking back but, well, they're the warmest things we have and we're going to want warm." _Spirits this is hard to talk about_?

Zuko just stared at her. His brain was currently still stuck on "body heat". Slowly he processed the rest. "We should do this now, it's getting darker."

Automatically Katara took off her outer coat. _This isn't hard_, she told herself. "Make a fire while I cut these." Zuko quickly took off his and gave it to her. As he held a flame in his hands she bent an ice dagger to cut the fabric. Right along the side each fell open. Wordlessly Zuko stood when she did to lay the coats down. Together they were both long enough for Zuko to not have to bend his legs and still have fur under him.

Slowly she exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding. "So, now, uh, everything else. We can pile our other clothes on top of the blanket." She could do this, she could do this. No, she couldn't. "Zuko," he turned to look at her, his fingers working on untying the belt around his middle, "could you, I mean, well, turn around?" She hated how small her voice sounded.

"Oh, sure," he turned away from her, sad but feeling slightly better that he wouldn't see her. He wanted to, desperately, but now wasn't the time.

Katara thanked any Spirit she could name for the fading light has she shucked off her clothing. Quickly she grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around her as she settled on the makeshift bed. Zuko, very conscious of where he was about to settle himself, kept his clothes in front of him while he lowered himself down. Katara looked away and let the blanket give way as he settled next to her. Awkwardly they arranged themselves and their clothes until finally Katara was as close to him as possible without actually touching.

They said nothing, just hovering almost touching. Katara wanted to reach out, he was so warm, and he smelled good, and she wanted him. _To hell with it_ she finally decided. _We could die out here and we're both unattached_. She broke their silent agreement about maintaining space and pressed herself up against his side.

Zuko immediately stiffened. That was Katara, against him, moving closer. Her breath tickled his ear and he swore someone was playing a trick with him. She couldn't want to. He looked down at her and she moved her head to see him better. Words weren't needed, her look told him everything.

They weren't sure who closed the distance first but they were kissing and he was pulling her on top of him and coaxing her mouth open. His tongue slipped into her mouth as she moaned at the contact of his chest below hers. Her hands found his hair as their tongues battled for sweet dominance.

* * *

Morning dawned bright and Katara burrowed closer into the warmth next to her. She wanted to stay here forever. Fate decided she couldn't.

"Katara, are you awake?" Zuko's sleepy voice penetrated her happy little world. _Well, I guess I have to face this now_. "Yes," she answered, but refused to open her eyes.

"Look at me," he commanded softly. Begrudgingly she opened her eyes and looked at him. He looked more relaxed than she had ever seen him but his eyes were guarded. "Where do we go from here?"

"Well we see if the storm has stopped-"

"I don't mean that."

She sighed. "I know. I don't want you to regret anything and I don't want this to ruin anything. We could be friends still." She didn't want that. She wanted this, this intimacy with him to last forever.

He heard the resignation in her voice. He didn't want that either. "We could. Or we could try this, being together."

Her eyes brightened. "Really?"

"You're already my best friend. I want to see if you can be more."

"That's the worst way to tell a girl you want her to be your girlfriend."

"So is that a yes?"

"Of course it is."


	10. Jet

**Disclaimer:** Don't own.

**A/N**: Thanks to all my reviewers and everyone who favorited or added this story to an alert. You guys are awesome. Also tomorrow is my graduation from graduate school. I feel like that should make me feel more like a real person than I do. Also this is an AU guys.

* * *

Jet knew how to watch. He watched the movements of Fire Nation soldiers for years, he watched how animals moved so he could find food, but most of all Jet watched people. He watched them and read them.

When he, Longshot, and Smellerbee ran into Pipsqueak and The Duke he watched the interactions between everyone. Well that was about all he could do, considering about three of his ribs were broken and his head needed to recover from the Dai Li manipulation as well as the blows to it. He noticed how his group had fractured from distance and new feelings. The Duke and Pipsqueak were still close, but Jet noticed how much more like a father Pipsqueak was. Longshot and Smellerbee, well, they were both getting older and Jet recognized the beginnings of romantic feelings between the two. He felt like the odd man out. It didn't help that they were all on a ship full of Water Tribe warriors.

Once everyone learned of the invasion plan Longshot and Smellerbee kindly asked to be dropped off somewhere else: they were truly done with fighting and didn't want to risk the invasion. Jet could hardly blame them, after all they went through under Ba Sing Se he was slightly hesitant about fighting again. Only slightly though, he wanted to cut down as many Fire Nation soldiers as possible to repay them for what the bastard Lee did.

Nearing the day of the eclipse Jet recovered and began practicing with his hooks again. The only thing of interest for him from the invasion (besides the utter failure) was getting to see Katara again. And getting to join their group to go to the Western Air Temple (he promised Pipsqueak that he would look after The Duke and make sure he at his vegetables).

There he took to watching people again. He felt out of place: he didn't care to go exploring with the other boys and he really wasn't part of Aang's group. He was there, however, when Lee showed up. Dressed in Fire Nation red, calling himself Zuko, offering to teach Aang firebending. Jet felt vindicated. He was right! The bastard was a firebender! Jet proceeded to do a very small victory dance. The fact that Appa licked the jerk and everyone shunned him made Jet's day better.

Jet was not happy when Lee became part of the group. Even more so when the others started trusting the bastard. Worse when they insisted the bastard's name was Zuko and not Lee and that he, the bastard, was the son of the Fire Lord (Jet really wished he had killed him in Ba Sing Se, witnesses be damned).

Jet did appreciate the sparing partner, though. Having a three-way match between Sokka and Fire Nation scum made his fighting better. That he would admit. Still he watched.

He watched Aang's crush on Katara, he watched Haru look at her a little too longingly, he watched and held The Duke when he missed Pipsqueak, he watched the blind girl laugh at everyone and still manage to look way too often in Sokka's direction. Most of all he watched how Katara and scum revolved around each other. Oh sure she hated him and he just wanted her forgiveness but Jet could see how much they noticed the other. How they catalogued every movement.

Jet let it be, he had other things to worry about other than the affection between those two. He hoped he could be around later though, maybe Aang would beat up the bastard for him.


	11. Kitchen

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Spelling of Kwa mai is taken from SCWLC in her story "Airbender's Child: Earth." I looked on the Avatar wiki and regular wiki and imdb and none of them told me a) that Katara used the name as an alias or b) how to spell it. Ps these are my tragic steam baby names, let me share them with you.

* * *

Zuko maybe the supreme ruler of the Fire Nation, but Katara ruled the kitchen. At first the chefs in the kitchen tried to keep her out. She, however, insisted that she had every right to be there: she was only dating Zuko at the time, she could easily cook her own meals and it wouldn't be anything for them to worry about. She even sweet-talked them into letting her cook dinner for Zuko one night (the staff liked her, she said please and thank you and spoke to them like people).

As Fire Lady they protested a little more. It just wasn't proper for her to be cooking. At this point she relented, her other duties were beginning to take up more of her time. She did, however, look over the menu for the week and organized and planned every important dinner or other event and always made it a point to taste everything.

On Ember Island, however, everything was different. She made their meals and everyone helped with the shopping. Katara may have been the Fire Lady, a Master waterbender, and a warrior but she was also a Water Tribe woman and she wanted to cook for her family.

She also made it part of her duty as a mother to teach her children to cook. Her daughters _and_ sons. One too many inedible meals from Sokka and just plain horrible meals from Zuko instilled in Katara the desire to know that all of her children could feed themselves if need be. However, not all of them were happy about this.

Irzan, at eleven, had mastered the annoyed glare his father had worn often as a teenager. He currently had it plastered on his face while glaring at his three siblings who were helping. The fourth, Lee, was only seven months and being entertained by Zuko who sat at the table in the kitchen. Nine-year-old Marukku stirred the pot with his waterbending, happy to be practicing though only barely paying attention as to how to make five flavor soup.

Kyra, however, listened intently to everything Katara said. She tried to remember how much broth was needed and how much salt should be added and when. The seven year old brushed a strand of her curly black hair behind her ear while trying to remember if the cabbage or the onion went in first.

Kwa mai, at almost three as she claimed, happily waited till it was her turn to dump the contents of the bowl Katara had given her into the soup. Katara, for her part, hoped the girl didn't drop anything; Kwa mai had the most energy of all Katara's children and a tendency to break things around her. Katara hoped, for the sake of the furniture and structure of the palace and summerhouse that Kwa mai wasn't a firebender.

"Irzan, why don't you start cutting up the meat?" Katara hoped this would help him out of his mood.

"Fine," he huffed. Katara was beginning to get tired of this. They were on vacation and he knew this happened. Last year he liked it and she had no idea what had changed in her son.

"If you want to do something else I understand. I know you have that book of history to read while you're here. Maybe you could work on that if you don't want to help out. But," and here she hoped to spark his interest, "for desert we're making honey cakes with moon peaches. If you don't want to learn how to make that I'll understand," a little guilt wouldn't hurt this either.

Irzan thought about this. On the one hand that stupid girl Momoka said cooking was for girls and would not let him forget that. On the other if he knew how to make his favorite desert maybe he could make it for himself more often. Yeah, that was a good plan. Plus the girl would never know. "No, I'll stay and help. Can you please hand me the knife Mom?"

After setting him up with the meat Katara glanced at Zuko. He was smirking at her manipulation. He knew how much Irzan loved those cakes and knew Katara kept putting off teaching the children how to make them for that reason. He hoped the boy would not only make them for himself though.

* * *

Years later Zuko's hope was confirmed when Irzan made honey cakes with moon peaches for Momoka's birthday and got a kiss in return.

* * *

**A/N**: Momoka's name is chosen for a reason: according to behindthename it means either peach tree flower or peach tree perfume.


	12. LoveLust

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Yeah, this one is kind of cheating with two words mixed together. Also maybe updating will kick my butt and make me write the next four letters that I have ideas for. Again, thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and added this story to their alerts! You guys rock!

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They were both learning the difference between love and lust and how the two meet. For her love meant family (both biological and not), blue, and warm embraces. For him love meant tea, turtleducks, and words of encouragement.

Lust was new to both of them and each fumbled through first experiences with it in different ways. For her it was becoming enamored with a pair of brown eyes paired with a cocky smile and for him it was seeing a childhood friend in a new light.

They couldn't seem to master combining love and lust. She had so much love for Aang but she didn't feel lust. She tried, hard, and wished and hoped desire would follow love but it never did. He lusted after Mai but no amount of stolen kisses or frantic touches could make him feel more for the gloomy girl.

Friendship masking as love can only last as long as a relationship based on lust.

She felt lust again when she saw him again. She wanted him and wanted him to want her. He'd always thought she was pretty but now she had grown into a woman and he was painfully aware of how she had curves where he liked them and could swear that his hand would fit nicely on her hip.

He learned that love could mean a kiss on his scar and the need to fix the frustration in her eyes. She felt a very different kind of love when she saw him smile and when he began to tell her about his past.

Together they learned there was love in the grass stains that covered their rumpled clothes and in the tangled sheets. There was lust in a simple look and fleeting touch.


	13. Mai

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. This actually comes out of my head canon because I don't hate Mai, I just don't like how the series ends for her. Thanks to everyone who has done all the favoriting and reviewing and alerting! Half way done!

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Mai was the last person Katara would have thought would accept her as Zuko's girlfriend. In fact she had purposely avoided the woman on the basis of seeing your boyfriend's knife wielding ex might be bad for your health. So Katara was surprised when she received a very formal looking invitation to Mai's for tea. Tea. Katara wondered if Mai had knowledge of poisons and if she would use them. Oh it was silly to think that but still, Katara knew that Zuko had been Mai's childhood sweetheart and the same went for Zuko.

Begrudgingly Katara accepted (not without the insistence of Zuko who seemed to know about the invitation). The day arrived and Katara almost cancelled on account of feeling sick. She knew it was possibly just nerves but how could throwing up on someone be considered polite? Really she was just saving Mai from having to clean up after her.

Katara braced herself, remembering that she had faced this woman in hand to water combat and survived, how could tea be any worse? This didn't mean that Katara didn't choose one of her better dresses (light blue in the style of the Earth Kingdom) and did her hair for about an hour before leaving for Mai's.

The walk to Mai's house was too short for Katara's liking. She stared at the door for about a minute before deciding that knocking was best (she couldn't find anything that looked like a rope pull for a bell). The large door opened to revel, not Mai, but what looked like her butler. "Ah, you must be Master Katara. Lady Mai is expecting you." Katara was immensely pleased that, even in the Fire Nation, she had the title of Master. The man led her to a parlor with an impressive view of the palace.

"I'm glad you could make it Katara," Mai seemed to materialize from nowhere at Katara's side. "Can you please bring the tea in?" The butler nodded as Mai waved her hand to direct Katara to sit at the small table. She took her seat and looked at everything in the room but Mai. She really wasn't nervous.

Katara watched the tea being set down and was relieved to smell ginseng and just ginseng. After being served Katara brought the steaming cup to her mouth, discreetly cooled it, and stiffed it once again just to be sure.

"It's not poisoned, you know," Katara flushed at the accusation. "You're also probably wondering why I even invited you here."

"Pretty much yes. I really didn't think you would even want to talk to me." She took a sip of her tea as soon as she saw Mai had taken a sip as well.

"I'm not really the jealous type. That was more Zuko in our relationship."

"He's trying to get better about it."

"I think," Mai paused to take a sip of her tea while Katara tried to relax, "that his jealously might have something to do with growing up with Azula. She likes having people look up to her and envy her. Therefore, he protects what is, as he thinks it, his. We've talked about it a few times actually." Katara had to squash her own burst of jealousy. She and Zuko talked about a lot of things, a lot of private things, but they hadn't talked about that.

"I guess," was the best reply she could come up with.

"For saying you're not the jealous one you're kind of acting like you are," Mai drawled in her slightly bored tone.

"Is there something for me to be jealous of?" Katara snapped.

Mai sighed. "No, not at all. Look I know you might not believe this but I'm still Zuko's friend. If you haven't noticed he doesn't have many friends here or even people he would consider even trying to become friends with.

"We've known each other since we were kids. We dated, we broke up. But after awhile we both realized we could work as friends. I'm not going to lie and say it was easy at first but I have realized we are better as friends. Being lovers made neither of us truly happy. You," at this Katara finally looked at the knife thrower who was staring at her intently, "make him happy. Honestly happy. Which is why I have a proposition for you."

Katara had to bite back "so you're not going to kill me?" and instead she said, "Which is?"

"The Fire Nation court is full of some pretty horrible people. Not the 'I'm going to burn your eyes out because you don't support the Fire Nation enough' kind of horrible but the 'let me backhandedly insult you while subtly pointing out every single one of your flaws.' They're horrible but I can help you deal with them in ways that don't involve freezing them to a wall."

"And how are you going to do that? Teach me how to insult them?"

"No that's boring. Not to mention you're too nice."

"I am not! I can be just as vindictive as you can!" She huffed.

"I'm sure you can," Mai continued in her slightly bored tone, "I just don't think you'd be good at it the way you would need to be. You're too forgiving at times and would rather see the best in everyone. I can, however, help you win over a select group of ladies who can help deflect most of the snide comments thrown at you."

Katara stared at Mai. She was, well, speechless. Mai was offering to help her fit in. To help her find a place in the Fire Nation. "Why are you even bothering to help me?"

"Beside the fact that Zuko asked me?" Katara tightened her jaw while she scowled. "I'm helping because hopefully it will make me less bored. Not to mention I'm sure you already have some choice words about some of the ladies you've met. I think I'd like listening to you rant about them."

"I'm always happy to complain about some of these women. As far as I'm concerned I have no idea how some of their husbands don't burn them in their sleep."

"I like how you think."

"You really are just friends with Zuko?" Katara asked.

"You've got nothing to worry about. By the end there were too many times I was fingering my knives and wondering where best to throw them."

"Good because I think I might really be in love with him."

"Which is great because for as much as he talks about you he has to be at least on his way to being in love with you. Can you ask him to stop talking about you? Its more annoying than cute at this point."

Katara smiled into her tea, very happy it wasn't poisoned, that she didn't really have to worry about Mai wanting Zuko back, that he might really be in love with her, and that she might have just made her first friend in the Fire Nation nobility.


	14. Negotiate

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

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Zuko remembered being taught how to play Pai Sho by Uncle Iroh one summer on Ember Island. He learned through out the years there was much more strategy involved in the game than he thought that summer. He'd improved and realized some of the ideas about strategy could be applied to dealing with his councilors.

Currently he had everyone set up for him to win exactly what he wanted, now came the negotiating to make what he wanted happen. He'd planned this meeting perfectly; he was in his full Fire Lord regalia at the head of the table he has specifically placed in the throne room. ("Shouldn't I just sit on my throne?" "No," Katara said, "they'll be able to see you better and your physical closeness will intimidate them." "Really?" "Trust me on this.")

He could look every council men in the eyes and could see a few of them shifting in their seats, clearly not wanting to bring up anything other than the matters the Fire Lord had recently expressed interest in. Needless to say the talks about what to do with decommissioned warships, how to keep the outer islands in check, and what to do to improve relations with the Earth Kingdom towns that surrounded the few colonies the Fire Nation had kept after the War were over.

Finally a brave (or foolish) man spoke. "My Lord I fear I must bring up a topic that we have discussed before and you have always seen best to dismiss, " Taiki began. "You have been Fire Lord for four years and helped guide our great Nation through one of our toughest periods. We're finally beginning to have decent harvests and lower taxes. I believe it is also time, if you agree, for you to consider taking a wife." The man braced himself. Zuko wanted to laugh. When his council had previously brought up the subject of marriage Zuko had told them they all had more important thing to worry about: the harvests weren't producing what they needed to, taxes where high, there were former soldiers who had taken to being bandits, the list went on. Surely making the Fire Nation great again, without war, was what they should be focused on not who should be Fire Lady. The council had, wisely, agreed with the Fire Lord but continued to bring it up at random intervals.

Zuko was ready now. He and Katara had been seeing each other in secret for months now. ("Why do we have to sneak around?" "If the council knew they would be pressuring us to get married and frankly I don't want to deal with that. I want to just spend time with you." "That's sweet and I really hope that's the truth because the second your engagement to some Fire Nation girl is announced I'll make sure your wedding night will be a let down for your wife.") They'd discussed what a public relationship would mean. Not just in terms of dating but also in terms of the future. He'd even made her a necklace. In response she helped him plan this meeting with his council. They had to think it was their idea and that she was a perfectly suitable wife to the Fire Lord. Spreading the rumor that she had been the Painted Lady and that she had healed Zuko from taking lightning for her from Azula helped so that the people accept her. Now it was just getting other approval.

"I believe it is time I consider this," was Zuko's only response. He could see all their faces light up. Clearly they had been waiting for this.

"If I could be so bold," Shiro began, "but I believe you know Lady Ty Lee. I know she is currently a member of the Kyoshi warriors but she has two unmarried sisters. Surely one of them would make a good wife."

"I know you and Lady Mai are no longer together but-" Nori began before Zuko cut him off with a firm "No."

"Perhaps the Fire Lord should seek a wife outside of the Fire Nation. It would show how committed we are to keeping peace will also gaining much needed allies." Zuko was going to make sure Kuro received something special for that comment.

"That is a valid point, I believe a wife from either the Earth Kingdom or one of the Water Tribes would be an excellent example of how the nations can coexist." He was also going to get Katara something special for coming up with that reasoning. He looked up to see a fluttering of the wall hanging. He watched closely as his council buzzed around him trying to come up with a legitimate candidate for Zuko on such short notice. There the hanging moved again. He also noticed a shoe sticking out. He was certain Katara had snuck in to spy on him (she had become rather friendly with the guards as well, clearly they had let her in).

"I believe King Bumi's sister has no husband," Goru said.

"She also just celebrated her 83rd birthday," Zuko remarked.

"The Earth King has a female second cousin who has no previous claims," Taiki added.

"She's also seven. I'd have to wait at least nine years until I could marry her."

"The Northern Water Tribe has a princess," Shiro remembered.

"She became the Moon Spirit."

"I know this many not be traditional but Toph Bei Fong could be a good wife for you. Though she is not from a noble family, they are very well connected and-"

Finally Zuko had to cut Riku off. "You would not want Toph Bei Fong as Fire Lady. Trust me, she would hate it, I would hate it, and she would take it all out on you."

There was silence again. _Think_ Zuko urged his council. _Think of Katara, think of how perfectly she is placed, think of the rumors!_

"What about Master Katara? She is the daughter of the Southern chief, I believe, and she's already proven her allegiance to the Fire Nation, if the rumors are true." Kuro was officially Zuko's favorite council member.

"She seems like the best choice. She even has ties with the Northern Tribe from learning to bend there," Zuko could conveniently leave out that her waterbending teacher was now her step-grandfather and no longer living in the North. "I'll write to Chief Hakoda and speak personally with Master Katara about this. Now that this is settled, I would like that thank you all for your help in this delicate matter." Each member inclined their heads to Zuko and stood after he did.

Zuko's eyes barely left the spot where he was sure Katara was hiding as each councilmen left. He waited until they were all gone before shouting "I know you're there Katara." She emerged from her hiding place looking not in the least bit sorry at what she had done.

"I'm 'the best choice' huh? You could at least have sounded a little more excited at the prospect of marrying me," she huffed.

"I'm plenty excited about marrying you. They just can't know it yet," he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. He kissed the top of her head before adding "I can't wait for you to be my wife and lover."

"Is that all you think about? Sex?"

"No. Not all the time at least. Like now I'm thinking about the letter I have to write to your father and negotiating with him about your living her before the wedding."

"Don't worry, I'll help you through that as well."

"You're already taking to the role of Fire Lady, aren't you?" Katara just smiled before she leaned up to kiss him.

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**A/N**: I tried something different with a few the parentheses being conversations that happened in the past. I hope they turned out ok!


	15. Opportunity

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Everyone is still awesome for favoriting, reviewing, and alerting.

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Looking back Zuko realized he'd had more opportune moments in his life than he thought. Sure some of them he'd done stupid or foolhardy things but that didn't matter. What mattered was when he needed an opportunity life seemed to supply him with it.

It had been sheer luck (and Iroh's desire to see the Southern lights) that had Zuko sailing the waters of the South Pole when the Avatar awakened. Not only that, but he discovered something else that shouldn't exist: a Southern waterbender. Both these things gave him, well; he wouldn't say hope, but a very very intense drive.

He had no trouble tracking the Avatar to Kyoshi. However it was luck that he happened to visit that prison after the waterbender helped lead a revolt. Not to mention that he found her necklace (really, he hadn't known it belonged to her, not like he noticed what she was wearing (he definitely didn't want to know what she looked like under that heavy coat of hers)).

Opportunity shined on him again when after the debacle at the Temple where he had been lucky to even escape with his freedom the second the pirates mentioned who stole their scroll.

He considered actually thanking Fate or Opportunity when he found the waterbender (Katara? He thought that might be her name) alone and captured her. He did regret using her mother's necklace against her (he was sure if he would give up his ship to have his mother back). He also took the moment to get close to the girl without her heavy coat on and he admired her.

After his very fortunate run in with Jun Zuko had to admit his luck was running a bit thin. He did manage to survive his ship's destruction, sneak into the Northern Water Tribe, and capture the Avatar but it was all for nothing. He ended up on a raft with his Uncle battered and bruised with nowhere to go.

His next choices seemed to be between the lesser of two evils. Earth Kingdom captors or Azula, steal or beg, stay and be lectures or leave, turn away help from (former?) enemies or take it, and so on.

He made the wrong choice when he chose Azula and his old life over the kindness Katara offered. Fate made sure to punish him in the form of guilt and later Katara after he finally realized what his Uncle had been trying to tell him: his father did not care about him and that the world would be a much better place without him in power.

All those missed moments and very fortunate moments had taught Zuko how to notice the opportune ones. He'd realized that, at their three year reunion where he was single and so was Katara, he was presented with a genuine opportunity. Especially when they managed to seclude themselves to catch up and she looked beautiful. He knew it was now or never and never regretted kissing her, especially when she kissed him back.


	16. Plans

Disclaimer: Don't own.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and put this story or me on alerts. As always you guys are awesome. Sorry this took so long, there was drama at work that resulted in me getting the job I want but not really where I want it but that's ok.

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"You're seeing _who_?" Ursa asked rather accusingly in Zuko's opinion.

"Katara," Zuko sighed, "her name is Katara, Mom. She taught Aang waterbending."

"She's a waterbender? Zuko, my love, you know I support everything you do but, well, how serious are you with her?"

"I'd say pretty serious considering I've written to her father, _Chief_ Hakoda, about her staying here, indefinitely."

"This wasn't the plan," was all Ursa responded with.

Zuko stared at her. "What plan?"

"You were supposed to marry one of Azula's friends. Either Mai or Ty Lee. There was a reason those were the only ones of her friends that came over to the palace. Depending on whom you seemed to like more when she turned thirteen your engagement to her would be announced."

"Well I managed to be banished before either of their thirteenth birthdays not to mention the fact that I barely interacted with them after you left. I pretty much stayed away from Azula as much as possible and when Uncle came back he tried to get me to spend more time with him while all I wanted to do was practice firebending and try to learn how to be a good prince."

"I know Sweetheart, I know," Ursa placed her hand over Zuko's scar, "I know what happened. This is just something that I thought would still happen. I'm sure Katara is a wonderful girl. Its just another thing that's very different from what I thought would happen."

"Well she's going to be arriving soon, she's been visiting her brother on Kyoshi but as soon as she found out you were here she immediately made plans to come back. You'll love her Mom, I promise."

"I'm sure I will."

Ursa didn't have long to wait to meet the girl who had captured her son's heart. The next morning news of Katara's arrival spread through out the palace with Zuko rushing off to the docks to meet her. Ursa smiled at the eager look on his face when he left and hoped that Katara was in fact a good match for him.

Deciding that feeding the turtleducks was a much better way to spend her time waiting rather than sitting in some room somewhere Ursa went to the kitchens to get some bread and made her way to the pond. This was one thing that hadn't changed, something she was immensely grateful for in this new world.

Lost in thought Ursa didn't hear Zuko approach. "Mom," Ursa nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice. "I'd like you to meet Katara. Katara this is my mother." Zuko had the biggest grin she had seen in a long time on his face. Next to him was a lovely Water Tribe girl in a very nice Fire Nation dress with Zuko's arm around her waist.

She bowed and gave the traditional Fire Nation solute before saying "it's a pleasure to finally meet you Lady Ursa." Ursa wondered if this was how Katara addressed everyone. She seemed almost too formal and like she was trying too hard. Ursa's heart went out to her.

"Please call me Ursa. How do you greet someone new in the Water Tribes?"

"Well we claps hands at the forearm like this," Katara grasped Ursa's arm in the traditional greeting. "But we also do this," and Katara threw her arms around Ursa and hugged her. "I'm so happy that you're here. Zuko couldn't stop talking about you on the way up from the harbor and I know how much this means to him. He missed you so much and I couldn't wait to meet you." As Ursa hugged her back she decided that this girl was possibly exactly what Zuko needed. Anyway plans could change.


	17. Quiet

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

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Katara's relationship with Aang had been loud. They had laughed, joked, screamed riding a number of strange creatures Katara had only ever heard stories about, and everything seemed to be at a kind of high pitch in their relationship. Their fights had been loud too, screaming over who was right and whose traditions they should follow. ("I'm not going to stop eating meat because you think it's not right." "All life is sacred Katara. Would you feed it to our children?" "Of course!" "What if they're airbenders?") Finally they ended in a huge fight that left their friends trying very hard to appear neutral for fear of losing a friend. Things between them mellowed out as time wore on and eventually they were friends again and laughing again but neither wanted to try being together again.

After her messy break up Katara moved back to the South Pole. There she met Unka from the Northern Tribe. Their relationship could best be described as grating. There has been constant bickering; verbal pats on the head, and frustrated sighs. She tried to remember why she had even bothered to stay with him but there was something rather comforting in knowing that she was dating someone while Aang wasn't. It lasted about three months before one of their fights ended with his confession of only wanting to date her because she was Chief Hakoda's daughter and Master Pakku's step-granddaughter.

Later that day Pakku asked Katara if she knew anything about Unka being frozen in a very life like ice statue of a walruspig with his head sticking out of the mouth. Katara replied she did and that he was no longer her concern as they had broken up. When Pakku asked her how Unka was supposed to get out said statue Katara replied with "well he can move his hands, I figured he could manage to bend the ice away." Pakku smiled and congratulated his best student (and favorite step-grandchild) on a job well done.

Months later, when the sting of Unka's words lessoned and she was able to be around Aang again without wanting simultaneously hit him and cry, something unexpected happened. She found herself in a relationship with Zuko. Not that she didn't care for him or feel for him or have a strong desire for him but realizing they were together caught her off guard. Her relationship with him could best be described, rather oddly, as quiet.

Sure they fought ("You tied me to a tree!" "Why would you even bring that up? It has nothing to do with what we are arguing about!" "You still did it!" "Well you deserved it!"), shouted ("I think the whole Capital heard you scream my name." "At least they know their Fire Lord can satisfy his Fire Lady."), and called each other names ("Peasant!" "Prince arrogant jerk of the land of jerks!" "I'm not a prince anymore!" "And I'm not a peasant!") but they still had a calm about them that she relished in. It was in the silence that she realized how right it felt to be with him. Whether they were lying in the shade during the heat of the day or just reading together she felt a sense of contentment that had been lacking before that she wouldn't trade for all the noise and excitement in the world.

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**A/N**: Everyone is still awesome. I also have a line I've really wanted to use some how and can't figure out where to put it. The line is "Katara I have matching scratches on my back the width of your finger nails. Can you do something about that?" I'm just not sure how to fit it into any of the remaining letters (R and S are spoken for). Thoughts?


	18. Return

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: I love all of you. Honestly that was the most reviews for any chapter I had for the last one. You guys are awesome!

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"Daddy!" squealed his youngest child as she ran down the gangplank and flung herself at him.

Zuko picked her up and grunted a little. "You're getting big, princess," he said putting her back down.

"I know! Did you notice I grew? Mommy said I did. Do you like my new dress? Uncle Sokka said it was like the one Mommy wore while traveling with Uncle Aang," Zuko was impressed at how fast his daughter was talking and could definitely tell that her dark blue dress was like the one he'd seen Katara wear while he was chasing her. "And I drew you a picture. Well I drew you a lot of pictures but I did this one yesterday and I wanted to give it to you first!" She thrust the paper at Zuko. He unrolled it and noted that, for a four year old, it was actually kind of good. He could at least tell that it was Katara and his second child practicing bending while his eldest was meditating off to the side. At least that's what he thought it was.

She was looking up at him with her big blue eyes that reminded him so much of Katara's that he wondered what was taking her so long to disembark. His other children for that matter too. "Do you like it?" She asked in the hopeful tone he'd come to realize only children made.

"I love it. It's very good."

"Are you going to hang it anywhere? Oh! Wait I have something else to show you!" He watched as she took a deep breath and watched her features rearrange into a look of utter concentration. A moment later she thrust out her fist and with it came a burst of fire. Not a large burst or even a very good one but she created fire.

"When did you start doing that?" He asked in awe.

"A little while ago. Mommy asked Irzan to show me some beginning moves but we haven't been working on them for long," she looked almost sad at that.

"Dad!" came the almost identical cry of his sons as they sprinted down to land. He would bet a good ten gold pieces that they were racing. Especially when, as he kneeled down to embrace them, his eldest stock his tongue out as he was clearly in the lead.

"Oof," was the sound that emitted from his mouth as they collided with him. "I've missed you," as they stepped back he took a good look at them. "You've both grown too."

"Where's my welcome?" Came the voice he'd been waiting to hear.

"Katara," he whispered as his wife came closer. He pulled her closer and kissed her as her arms slid around his neck. There were annoyed "ews" from their children but neither really cared.

"Three months is too long to be apart," Katara murmured, as they finally broke apart.

"I whole heartedly agree. Come on, let's go home." His hand slid around her waist as the family walked to the waiting carriage, Zuko had decided that a palanquin all the way to the Palace from the docks would be too much for the bearers. He opened the door and waited as his kids and Katara clambered in before he followed, taking a seat next to Katara while their children sat across from them.

On the trip up he was regaled with stories from their trip to Kyoshi, complete with how the boys learned how to use and care for a boomerang, how they had spared not only with their male cousin, but also with their female ones, how they saw the unagi splashing around, and Kyra whipped out her practice fans that she had taken to keeping in her belt to show Zuko. He smiled at everything, pulling Katara closer and every so often placing a kiss on her forehead.

When they arrived at the Palace the driver opened the door for them. "I'm going to go make sure the children get settled," Katara said as they walked up the steps. Zuko wasn't sure what they needed to get settled but he did know that he had some letters he had to go over that he had left in favor of meeting them when their ship docked. "I'll probably see you at dinner then," he responded as they went their separate ways.

Dinner was everything Zuko remembered it being. It was loud and full of trying to get the children to eat everything they should, stopping arguments over pieces of food, and something Zuko had missed dearly.

"Why don't you put the children to bed, I'll be waiting for you," Katara kissed his check as she stood and excused herself from the table with a quick "be good" to her children.

Zuko made sure the children were in their rooms and ready for bed (he even told them a story, one about the Blue Spirit for his sons and a story about turtlducks to his daughter). On his way back to his rooms he realized just how different his children's lives where than his was: whereas they had an official nurse he and Katara, for the most part, took care of them while he had had his mother and nurse take care of him. His children also had the unconditional love of both their parents.

He entered the rooms he and Katara shared and was happy to find her sitting in front of her vanity in her robe brushing out her hair. He watched her watch him as he made his way to his closet to shuck off his formal attire in favor of black sleeping pants.

Katara was waiting for him as he emerged from his closet. "Are the children in bed?" He nodded while his arms snaked around her waist. "Good I have plans for you tonight. But first there's something I-" she was cut off when he'd decided that those plans needed to go into effect _now_. He managed to drag her over to their bed without breaking the kiss.

"Zuko," Katara moaned as his mouth moved to her neck. "I really think you want to listen to what I have to say."

"Too much talking not enough moaning my name," came his reply.

"There better be moaning later. I'm pregnant." That made him stop and look at her. She saw his look of shock and could almost see the thoughts going through his mind. "I'm about four months."

"But we were being careful. Three is a good number."

"I know but with all our fighting and you're wanting to send us away because of the assassination attempts on the children and all our making up then, well, I guess we got a little careless." She took his hand and placed it over the slight but still there rounding of her stomach.

"I guess we'll have four then."


	19. Sick

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: This comes out of me actually starting to feel sick. Boo. I have about half of a different word for s done but this one came out easier. I do want to go back to that one though. I also know of a few fics where one of these two is sick so I guess I'm adding to the pile. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and everything!

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The day started off rather well for Katara. All three kids were healthy again, Zuko wasn't sick, and she had, miraculously managed to not get sick either. Now it was time to get back to normal routine of helping run a country and family.

She took her older children to school, discussed with their teachers what they missed and promised they would make it up even though the teachers were a little hesitant to give the princes extra work. She told them, once again, that while they were royalty she wanted them treated like every other student and that meant make up work. It helped a little when she gently remind them that she too was royalty and could easily turn her request into an order (though she never would). After she returned to the Palace she looked over letters she had received in her office while her youngest played in the corner. Lunch was a small affair that she bullied Zuko into attending. After was naptime while she and Zuko discussed the affairs of the Fire Nation before she went to pick up her other children.

As dinner drew closer she began to feel a little sore. That was fine, she and Zuko had sparred a few days before and, while she was still in shape, sometimes she became a little sore after. She brushed it off and focused on helping with calligraphy. At dinner she took a sip of tea before coughing. It was probably too hot and that was why her throat slightly hurt. She drank water the rest of the time.

Zuko put the kids to bed and Katara changed for bed. That was when it hit her. She avoided getting sick for about a day but now she could feel the tightness in her throat and the sickly ache through out her body. She changed again into her most comfortable pajamas (a pair of loose pants and one of Zuko's old shirts) and curled up in bed. She was asleep before Zuko came back.

In the morning she felt no better but liked the warmth that was Zuko wrapped around her. Then she coughed. And he coughed.

"Please tell me that was some form of sympathy," she croaked out.

"I can tell you that but it won't be the truth. I thought we managed to skip getting sick this time," he complained.

"I did too. Usually we get it while they're still sick," cough, "but I guess not this time. I'm going back to bed. You can't," she weakly kicked his leg under the covers, "you have an important trade meeting to prepare for."

"Head hurts, throat hurts, body hurts," hack, "don't want to move." He burrowed his head into her shoulder. "You're warm."

"I usually tell you that." They lay curled up taking turns coughing for a little and wallowing in their shared illness.

"Maybe," Katara began while pulling the blanket closer around herself. Zuko whined and tried to grab some from her before he realized he had a half a bed's worth of blanket to curl up in himself. "We could get up, get things set in motion for the day and get anything important that we need to look over and bring it to bed."

"Good plan. You get up first. I'll follow you." Katara knew she would have to drag him out of bed. For all of his 'firebenders can get sick but get better faster because our bodies are warmer' talk she knew he was always sick for the same amount of time as she was and he always complained slightly more about it. She tried to make herself move, to force her body into getting up from the warm comfort of the bed and failed. Miserably.

"Later, later I'll move."

She could feel herself drifting back to sleep when two distinct cries of "Mom, Dad!" and one of "Mommy, Daddy!" came from inside the room. She wasn't going to guess as to why she didn't hear the door open all she knew was her children were being loud and, for a second, she felt like a slightly horrible mother for wishing they would shut up and leave her alone.

"Kids are here," Zuko mumbled from under the blanket. "Katara make them stop being so loud." She really hoped that somewhere deep down he felt bad about that comment.

Three heads appeared by Katara's side of the bed, all wide eyed and looking expectant. Before any of them could say anything Katara muttered "Mom and Dad are sick. Go get Grandma and tell her to come here." At that moment Katara was so grateful that Ursa had returned and had agreed to live here.

They nodded and ran off. Had either Zuko or Katara been more aware they would have seen their eldest take charge and give jobs to his siblings with the effectiveness needed for the future Fire Lord (even if the job he gave to his baby sister was to stay with him). However both were already on their way to going back to sleep.

Katara woke up again when Zuko moved next to her. She rolled over to see him sitting up and Ursa leaning over to place a tray in front of him. "Here baby," had Zuko been feeling better Katara knew he would have been annoyed at being called that but always told her to stop affectionately. "I brought you hot and sour soup like you like when sick and some of Iroh's special blend of tea for sore throats. Your children said that they heard you two coughing. I also brought what looked important for your trade meeting and it's on the table here," she gestured to the nightstand by Zuko's side, "along with a pot of jasmine tea and some honey. You can heat the tea when you're ready to drink it." She placed a kiss on his forehead much like Katara had done when her kids were lying in bed sick before bending down to pick up another tray and some scrolls.

"Ah, good you're also awake Katara. Here let me help you sit up. I brought you the same thing as Zuko and a pot of the lychee tea you like. Have Zuko heat that as well even if he complains. I also brought that scroll of Fire Nation myths you've been wanting to read and the letters that arrived this morning for you. If you or Zuko need anything else there's a servant waiting outside your door but I'll be back to check on you two." Katara was surprised when Ursa kissed her head too and let a few tears escape her eyes because this whole thing reminded her of her own what her own mother would do when she was sick as a child. She managed to hold back the larger sobs because those would hurt her head and throat more than they were hurting. Zuko noticed her tears and carefully put his arm around Katara.

"Thanks," she mumbled. After a few moments of being held she gently moved to get her soup and Zuko took the hint and began eating as well. Occasionally one of them would cough and inevitably spill some of the soup on either themselves or the blanket.

Once finished they moved their trays to the floor and curled up together. Katara rolled over to kiss his cheek before snuggling into him again. "What a pair we make," he said into her hair.

"At least no one can say we don't take care of the kids."


	20. Turtleduck

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Turtleduck comes from **Kimberly T.** Thanks for the idea! Everyone is still really awesome! Thanks!

* * *

Lee knew what the white oval shaped object in front of him was. Grandma always pointed them out to him and his siblings in springtime. He knew there should be more than one and it didn't look like the egg was in a nest (what he didn't know was that it had been but Momo, who was now gone along with Uncle Aang, had moved it earlier that day). Lee thought for a moment and came up with a plan. He was going to take care of the egg. This seemed like a great plan to the five year old.

Carefully Lee picked up the egg and brought it slowly to his room. He placed the egg on his bed while he thought about how to build a nest for it. Grandma had said that the mama turtleduck would dig a hole in the ground and line it with sticks and plants to help keep the eggs warm. She would also sit on them. Lee didn't have any sticks or leaves in his room and he was sure someone would clean them up if he just left them here. He did have clothes and a fireplace and always had a fire in it. He got some clothes out of his drawers and placed them by the fireplace and placed the egg in the center.

Lee felt very proud of himself for coming up with this solution until he realized that he had the same problem as with the sticks. No matter how many clothes he left on the floor or how many times Mom told him to clean them up himself somehow his floor was always free of clothes after he came back to his room. Who could he get to make sure his egg stayed where it was? There was always someone outside his door at all times (he really wasn't sure why this person was there, but he never thought to ask) maybe he could make sure the pile wasn't disturbed.

Quickly he ran to his door and looked outside. "Uh, hi," he began.

"Prince Lee," the guard said as he bowed.

"Could you make sure that the pile of clothes on my floor stays there?"

After a slight pause the guard answered, "of course, your highness."

"Thank you," he added. Closing the door he thought about what to do next. The egg was warm but what happened next? He knew that the baby turtleduck came from the egg but he wasn't sure what the turtleduck would want to eat. Or when it would come out. Best to go ask someone about them.

The first person he thought of was Grandma but she was in Ba Sing Se visiting Grandpa Iroh. Mom and Dad always knew what he was doing and he wanted to keep the egg a secret. They probably wouldn't let him keep it. Asking his siblings for help seemed like the best option.

After searching in every place he could think of (his eldest brother's room and the training area (Lee did find Kwa mai warming up there though)) Lee tried the last place he usually found his brother: Dad's office. Bursting through the door he did find his brother. Irzan and Dad were looking over the same document and they booth looked up at him when he came bursting in. Lee quickly properly bowed to his dad before saying "hi."

"Is there something you wanted Lee?" Zuko asked his youngest child.

"Uh, I wanted to ask Irzan something."

"Which is?" Zuko knew Lee was hiding something.

"Do turtleducks eat meat?"

Irzan looked at his baby brother and wondered what in Agni's name made him want to know the answer to that. "No. Why do you even want to know?"

"Just wondering."

"Why did you have to ask me?"

"You're the oldest." Lee's statement sounded almost like a question. It was, after all, the best response he could come up with.

Zuko sighed. He wasn't going to get any information out of Lee right now. "Why don't you go to the kitchens and tell them I said you could have a sweet." Lee knew when he was being dismissed and, never one to pass up food, scampered off to the kitchen to get his reward.

Later, while eating his mango sweet cake, Lee began his search for his other brother. He found Marukku in the garden with the dragon fountain, kissing Lady Mai's daughter.

"Go away Lee!" was all he got out of Marukku. His sisters might know more.

Kyra told him to look for a book while she was busy painting a new screen for her room. Mom had joined Kwa mai since he left and he thought she might know of a book about turtleducks.

"Why do you want a book about them, sweetheart?"

"I just do. I'm not sure where to find one though," he admitted.

"I'll get you one later today, how does that sound?"

"Thanks Mom!" Lee exclaimed before running away.

"Do you know why your brother wants a book about turtleducks?" Katara asked her daughter.

"No but I know who Marukku has a crush on. He made me promise not to tell though." Katara was beginning to miss the days of her children telling her everything (though those had really never existed).

After dinner Katara came to tuck Lee in and give him the most basic book she could find about turtleducks. "This is for you," she turned and saw the pile of clothes on the floor. "Sweetheart can you pick those up in the morning?"

"Yes Mom. Goodnight." Katara kissed him goodnight on the check before blowing out the candle by his bed and then dousing the torch on the wall from the pitcher in his room.

For the next three days Lee spent every possible minute he could in his room. He read as much as he could from the book but some of the words were too big for him to understand. Luckily there were also pictures. From what he could piece together turtleducks ate this weird grass thing that was in the pond outside, reeds, and bread. He thought that would be easy to get. On the third day of waiting and being told to clean his room Lee saw the egg move. He knelt beside it, watching something poking at the shell. After awhile something broke the egg and Lee could see a beak. His turtleduck was hatching!

Lee watched as the hole got bigger and suddenly there was a head and then a body and there it was. The baby turtleduck looked at Lee and shook its body ruffling feathers.

"I'm going to name you Kame!" The turtleduck quaked in response. Lee knew that he should probably put Kame in water so he plugged and filled the sink in his bathroom.

"No Kame!" Lee screamed as the turtleduck waddled toward the fire. "That's not a good place for you." Carefully Lee picked up Kame receiving only a little nip at his fingers before putting the turtleduck in the water. "Stay here, I'll go get you some food."

Kyra, who was reading by the turtleduck pond, watched her youngest brother gather slimy pondweeds and reeds. She also noticed the bread in his pocket. She just shock her head, she would never really understand any of her brothers.

Lee managed to feed Kame and keep her (though Lee thought Kame was a boy) secret for about a day and a half. He noticed she had taken to following him around and quaking rather loudly when he tried to get her to stay behind when he left his room. He gave up and started bring her with him, she easily fit in his pocket right now and as long and she didn't make that much noise he was ok (though he did find a few nasty surprises in his pockets later).

It was when he had to go greet Grandma and Grandpa Iroh that his secret was out. "Come on, be quiet like a good boy," Lee urged as he stuffed a squirming Kame into his pocket. She kept making noise but finally stopped when he stuffed some bread in his pocket as well.

"I missed you!" Lee shouted as Iroh picked him up.

"I've missed you too," Iroh said hugging his youngest grandson close. Then held back a shout himself as something bit him. Hard. Making sure he still had a grip on Lee Iroh pulled his hand up and with it came the turtleduck. "And who is this?"

"He's mine. His name is Kame," Kame, who had been gently taken off Iroh's finger by Ursa, proceed to quack at the sound of her name.

"Lee where did you get a turtleduck? Did you take him from his mother?" Katara questioned.

"No, I found his egg under a bush. He follows me around now," he turned his head so he could look at his parents trying to look as hopeful as possible. "Can I keep him?"

Zuko and Katara looked at each other. They couldn't really say no. He had managed to hatch the thing and keep it alive after that. Worse came to worst the turtleduck would just go join the others.

"All right," Katara relented.

"But you're going to take care of him. You're like his dad now." Zuko added.

Lee leaned out of Iroh's arms only just managing to get on to the ground rather than fall, and ran over and hugged his parents. "Thank you!" Then he went and took Kame out of Ursa's hand. "Come on Kame, let's get you some more bread." Lee put the turtleduck down on the ground and went off to the kitchen, new pet following.

Kwa mai turned to her parents and asked, "If Lee is Kame's dad, does that mean you're his grandparents."

Katara laughed as Zuko muttered, "I'm too young to be a grandfather."

* * *

**A/N2**: I promise the next one will have more direct Zutara.


	21. Uncomfortable

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Thanks to **snarkhunter** for inspiring this. I know this isn't the word you gave but actually this did come from urgent in a way. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and such!

* * *

Zuko let out a breath as he bent over his right leg in his finishing stretches. He'd probably pushed himself harder than he should have in his practice this morning: he's collapsed on the ground after his final move and he could feel his muscles protesting as he stretched them out. It was his own fault he thought as he switched to stretching over his left leg. He hadn't practiced for a month now but with good reason. A month ago was his wedding to Katara and, well, she tended to hinder his ability to get out of bed in the morning to practice. Considering every time Katara changed into her practice clothes Zuko made sure she didn't get to leave the bedroom either.

As he stood his back twinged. He couldn't think of why it would hurt (really they were trying new things but nothing that should hurt his back). He ignored the pain as he slide on and loosely tied his shirt before heading back to his rooms to wash up and change before breakfast. He expected to find Katara still in bed (and maybe up for helping him clean up) but she wasn't there. This was the first morning he wasn't there when she really woke up (he had kissed her and told her where he was going when he left and she had mumbled something before turning away from him and going back to bed). It felt odd knowing that this would be the first of many mornings where he wouldn't be there when she woke up and wondered how his life had changed so much in such a short time.

Deciding to just wash up instead of taking a full bath (he could save that for later and hopefully with Katara) he filled the sink and grabbed a towel and soap. He shed his shirt again and absent mindly began cleaning the sweat off. Everything seems fine, his aches less than they were before, until he ran the towel over his back. _That_ hurt. A stinging kind of hurt that he was pretty sure wasn't from training. He was entirely sure when he quickly pulled the cloth away and noticed there were red splotches on it. Blood. How was he bleeding? He turned around and looked at his back in the mirror. There were thin red lines there, none of them dripping blood but he knew they were open. Putting two and two together he knew exactly where they had come from. Last night they had been a little rougher than usual. He remembered how good it felt when she ran her nails over his back. Apparently in the morning it didn't feel so good.

_She made them she can fix them_ he thought as he finished cleaning up and dressed. Having become aware of the scratches he now felt them with everything he did.

He made his way to the small informal dinning room for breakfast hoping to find her there. He found her in there like he expected.

"Katara I have matching scratches on my back the width of your finger nails. Can you do something about that?" He saw her blush and then heard laughter. His uncle and mother's laughter to be precise.

"Zuko, that's not the proper way to great your wife. You say 'good morning' and offer her some tea. Then you ask her to heal the injuries she inflicted." Zuko was sure the old man was enjoying this way too much.

Blushing himself he sat down next to Katara and gave her a quick kiss. "Sorry about that," he paused and looked at her empty cup, "would you like some tea?" he asked sheepishly.

"Yes, thank you," he could see the blush fading from her checks. "After we finish I'll take a look."

"Thanks."

"And I'll try to be more careful next time," she added softly.

"I liked it though," he whispered in her ear. He loved that he made her shiver at that.

"Nephew, you're very lucky. I had to suffer through some of the pains of the newly married without the benefit of a waterbender with the ability to heal." Zuko felt his face heat up again and decided to ignore Iroh for the time being.


	22. Visits

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: I'm almost done. I have solid ideas for the last four letters (wow that's weird to write). Thank you to everyone for everything.

* * *

It took all of Katara's courage (and the better part of three years) to ask Zuko if she could see Ozai. She wanted to see the face of the man who thought he could conqueror the world and sent the Southern Raiders on their mission. Though she knew Zuko's relationship with his father had never been great, especially not now, she still had no idea the fully extent of their past.

"Katara, are you sure you want to see him?" Zuko asked as they walked to the prison.

"I'm sure. I've seen pictures of him and know he's locked away without his bending but I need to see this for myself. It's taken me awhile to even want to go." She looked at his expressionless face and tried not to squint as the sunlight reflected off his crown.

He exhaled. "All right but I'm staying with you the entire time."

"Were you just going to make me go back? We're on our way there."

"I was trying to talk you out of this while on the way. I forgot how stubborn you are." They walked the rest of the way in silence. The guards bowed to them as they walked in. This was another moment when Katara was reminded that her friend, possibly her best friend if she was honest with herself, was a very powerful man.

They stopped in front of a plain door. "Uncle was held two cells over after Ba Sing Se," Katara remembered Zuko saying his Uncle had been imprisoned and she thought it rather fitting Ozai was also here. He gripped the handle, "be warned, he's been just in here. Mentally he's pretty much the same. Physically is another story." With that they entered.

The first thing Katara noticed was the rank smell of unwashed human and the acrid smell of urine. The metal cage that held Ozai seemed ordinary enough but Katara didn't really care. There, sitting on a thin bed mat, was the former Fire Lord. His hair was a tangled mess and his face covered in a wiry beard. Nothing like the picture Aang had brought back from school or the portrait that hung outside the throne room.

"My illustrious son as decided to visit me," Ozai sneered. "And he brought a little friend. Did you want your girlfriend to meet your father?"

"You will address Master Katara with the respect she deserves," Zuko cautioned.

"So the Water Tribes are making little girls masters now? It seems fitting for ice bound barbarians." Katara's fingers twitched. She felt the water on the walls and the other liquids in the room (even the ones she didn't want to think of what they were).

She took a steadying breath. "Did you send the Southern Raiders to kill the last Southern waterbender?" She wanted to know this. Wanted to not only see the face of the man who did it but also the one who ordered it.

"Once I was told there was another waterbender, yes I did. Keeping waterbenders prisoners is a cumbersome task. Better to just kill them on sight."

"Why? Why the Southern Tribe? What did we ever do to you!" Katara was screaming now and she didn't care.

"Your little Tribe meddled in affairs that were not their own. They always went to the aid of the Earth Kingdom. The North at least had the decency to hide themselves off from the world."

"You're a horrible person."

"So I've been told. But tell me this _Master_," he said the world like a curse, "if you had an opportunity would you kill me?"

She balked at the question. "I honestly don't know. From what I can tell that makes me a better person than you ever were and ever will be. Come on Zuko, let's go." She took his hand and stalked out of the cell. Once Zuko closed the outer door Katara began to shake.

"Are you all right?" He asked watching her.

"I…don't know. I always wondered what kind of a person he was and now that I know I'm not sure why I wanted to know." Zuko embraced her at that moment.

"I know, come on. When we get back…we'll have some tea." She nodded and they began to walk out. Zuko kept his arm wrapped around Katara's shoulder the whole way.

* * *

A month after Katara's visit to Ozai she was still in the Fire Nation. She wasn't sure what was keeping her there but she didn't want to leave. Zuko had begun to talk about his relationship with his father almost immediately after the visit but Katara sensed he wasn't telling her everything. When he was ready he would tell her everything.

She never expected she would be on her way to go visit his sister. Zuko had asked if she would come with him to see Azula. When asked why he even wanted to see his sister his response startled her.

"She's my sister Katara. No matter what she still is. Once Uncle told me she was crazy and needed to be stopped and I believed him. Then I came back to the Fire Nation and had to be around her. I hadn't seen her, really, for three years and she had these moments where I could see what my little sister could have been like. And now…now she's this shell. She's not the person she was and not that I want the vindictive Azula back but I at least want to know if she can ever be all right again."

"You want her to get better?" She asked.

"When I told Uncle what happened to her he asked me what I thought would be best for her. After a lot of talking I just said I wanted her better. He said he was proud of me because I was willing to give her a chance. Please just come with me. Maybe you know something that can help her." The pleading in Zuko's voice made Katara agree. She knew Sokka would be asking the same thing if she were in Azula's condition.

The facility Azula was in couldn't have been more different than Ozai's if it tried. The plain building nestled on the edge of the Capital with the caldera wall right behind it. Around the building was a large wall behind which were immaculate gardens.

"Fire Lord," a woman dressed in a plain light red dress (Katara couldn't call it pink, that was too happy a color) bowed to Zuko. "Princess Azula is doing well today. And you brought a guest?"

"This is Master Katara. She has healing abilities and, from what I've been told, can heal the mind as well as body. I've asked her to take a look at Azula."

"That sounds promising my Lord," she led the way to Azula's room. Later Zuko told her that there were others there as well, those who came back from fighting and didn't seem to be able to deal with life anymore.

Katara's first glimpse of the princess since she chained her to the ground startled her. The once proud girl sat on the bed wearing a wrinkled robe, tracing invisible patterns on the blanket. Katara noted the leather cuffs on the bed and realized that "Azula doing well" meant that they weren't needed.

"Princess your brother is here to see you," their guide said before turning to leave. "When you're finished I'll be down the hall." Zuko nodded.

"Zuzu you came to see me?" She sounded helpless.

"I did and I brought you some fire gummies," he pulled a little bag out of his pocket and handed it to her as he sat down next to her on the bed.

"Thank you." Katara was surprised Azula even knew those words.

"This is my friend Katara. She might be able to help you," Zuko motioned for Katara to come into the room.

Azula looked at Katara before her eyes went wide. "No Zuzu! I don't like her! She froze me Zuko! GET HER AWAY FROM ME!" She threw the bag of candy at Katara.

"You better go," Zuko said as he wrestled his sister to the bed. Katara knew that was for the best and left the room. She didn't want to close the door behind her or go back to talk with the woman who showed them the room. Instead she just waited outside, eavesdropping on the conversation.

"Shhh, Azula. She's gone, she's not going to freeze you," Zuko soothed.

"It was cold Zuzu, I didn't like it. Don't let her near me again."

"I won't. Here," Katara heard the rustle of his robes, "I brought another bag for you." He paused. "In case something happened to the first one." Katara wondered how many things he brought that she either burned or threw somewhere. "I heard you're feeling better."

Katara almost missed Azula's quiet response. "I haven't seen her in awhile. Everyone tells me that's a good thing. But I think I miss seeing Mom. I don't know why, she always liked you better."

"We just spent more time together. You always spent more time with Dad." It took Katara a minute to realize that "Dad" meant Ozai. Katara felt like more of intruder at that moment then before. She tried to tune out the rest of the conversation and managed to do so pretty well.

When Zuko finally left he called the woman back over and thanked her for taking care of Azula. Katara didn't know what to say as they left.

"So you've met all my family now," Zuko muttered without looking at Katara.

She took his hand in hers and made sure the lace their fingers together. "You know I'm your family too as are Sokka, Aang, Toph, and Suki." Zuko didn't say anything, he just squeezed her hand.

* * *

**A/N2**: I've wanted to write Azula for a while now. I'm not sure how she came out but she was here. I also played a little fast and loss with the time line concerning Ozai ordering the attack on the Southern Water Tribe. It could happen but it probably would have had to been the first official thing he did.


	23. Wash

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: There are not enough ways I can say how awesome everyone who reviews, favorites, and alerts is! I'm also trying to finish this by Zutara week. This may or may not happen.

* * *

Katara felt a pleasant pressure on the side of her neck just below her ear. She wanted the feeling to go on forever but distantly heard "wake up." She grumbled a little and the pressure moved lower along with a more insistent requests.

"I'm awake," she mumbled sleepily into the pillow.

"Good. I just wanted to let you know I'm going to practice my firebending," at that Katara stiffened. She really hadn't been awake before but now, now she was aware of where she was. And whom she was with. And that there was a sheet separating them. "I didn't want you to wake up alone and wonder why," Zuko kissed her neck again before she felt the bed move and heard the shuffling of his feet and the rustle of fabric.

She stayed perfectly still until she heard the door open and close behind him. Then she rolled over and buried her face in her pillow and screamed in frustration. She knew exactly what happened last night and knew she had been fully aware of everything. The amount of plum wine she had was enough to make her bold enough to drag Zuko to the second floor of his beach house under the pretense of seeing if there was any other treasures in the attic. Instead as soon as they were upstairs and away from the prying eyes of Sokka and the slightly sad eyes of Aang she shoved Zuko against the wall and claimed the mouth she'd wanted to taste for so long. His mouth was everything she had dreamed it would be: demanding, firm, and tasting slightly of spices. She couldn't get enough.

They had fumbled their way to his room and in a rush of teenage hormones (she would stick to that even though he was nineteen and she was seventeen) had found themselves on his bed, clothes coming off and exploring each other. Katara felt her cheeks warm at the memory while other parts of her body remembered with a different kind of warmth. They hadn't gone all the way, they knew the consequences but Spirits what they did with their mouths.

She rolled so she was lying on her back and threw her arm over her eyes to block the light. What was she going to do? He seemed interested last night and had made sure she knew where he was. Did he not want her to wake up alone? Or did he not know how to get her out of his room? She let out a groan of frustration and turned over and buried her head in his pillow. She inhaled his scent and sighed happily. She loved it and couldn't seem to get enough.

After awhile she knew she had to move, had to get out of his room before Sokka came looking for her, had to figure out what this all meant and just curling up in his bed was not an option. She got up and quickly found all her clothes and put them back on. She opened the door, looking down the hall to make sure no one else was there (and praying Toph was still asleep as well as Sokka) before running on her tiptoes to her room.

She flung herself on her bed and didn't remember closing her eyes until she woke up later, breathing in his scent again. It took her a moment to realize she shouldn't be able to smell Zuko in her room. What was it? She sat up and smelled her clothes. No those didn't smell like him. Just in case she changed and noticed the scent stayed. Turning her head to smell the side of her body that had been pressed against him she became aware that _she_ smelled like him.

She needed to bathe, needed to get his scent off her before someone noticed. Gathering her bathing supplies she made her way to the bathroom near her. The door was closed so she knocked and heard Sokka scream "I'm in here...Suki is that you?" and she quickly went to the other bathroom. That door was closed too and Ty Lee responded she would be done soon (Katara wasn't sure why Ty Lee was on their group break on Ember Island but she was fun enough).

Katara took a second to weigh her options before deciding she was going to the beach to wash off his scent. Dropping her stuff back in her room she made her way down to the beach. Taking off her clothes she ran into the water dove in just her wrappings. She made her way out farther than where the waves crested and began to float there.

Out there she thought more about what she'd (they'd) done. She had to face him and ask what this meant. She would, she promised herself that.

Swimming back to shore she was surprised to see Toph and Suki waiting for her. "Hey guys, out for a morning swim as well?" Katara asked lightheartedly as she walked up to them.

"Of course Sugar Queen, what with my not being able to see in the ocean. No we're here to talk about last night. Well I am, Fans here just followed me out and I had to fill her in." Katara had forgotten how perceptive Toph really was. She decided to call the girl's bluff though.

"What about last night?"

"Oh I don't know, you and Sparky running upstairs and not coming back down."

"Sokka almost went to go look for you two. I had to reassure him that you both were just looking through boxes," Suki added.

"Not to mention some of the _interesting_ conversations I heard later that night," Katara had the decency to blush at that. "Plus the fact that you pretty much ran out of the house this morning smelling like Sparky."

"Toph!" She tried to sound indignant but she knew she was caught. "How did you know I smelled like him?"

"Easy, you all have distinctive smells as well as heartbeats. I have to use everything I can to keep you all apart."

"Katara, did you two, you know?" Suki asked moving closer to Katara. For her part Katara collapsed onto the beach with the other two following her.

"We didn't and before you say we had to do something Toph we didn't do _that_. We did…other things," Katara was certain her checks couldn't get any redder.

"Did you want to?"

"Of course! Why would you ask that Suki?"

"Well you never really seemed interested in him before-"

"Sweetness and Sparky not interested in each other? That's rich! They're always together; they were always together even when they were dating other people. The real question is when are you two going to stop being idiots and admit you are totally into each other."

Toph was right and Katara knew it. She needed to grow up and be a big girl (she mentally laughed remembering when Zuko had mocked her with that phrase) and admit her feelings. "Soon Toph. Just let me do it on my own time, all right?"

"Whatever you say Sweetness. I'll make sure Suki runs interference on Sokka for you."

Katara stood and made her way back to the house with the intent of having a conversation she didn't really feel like having.

* * *

Katara felt a pleasant pressure on the side of her neck just below her ear and remembered the last time she had been woken up like that. "Wake up, love," Zuko murmured into her skin sending shivers down her spine. She rolled over to face him. "I'm awake, husband," she leaned in to kiss him.

"Mm, good. I have plans for this morning," he said as she moved her kisses to just below his ear where she could let his scent wash over her.


	24. Xenophobia

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and put this story or me on alert! I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. There is another author's note at the end.

* * *

"Gran Gran you wanted to see me?" Katara asked as she walked into her grandmother's hut. It was unusual for Gran Gran to ask to specifically see Katara but she guessed it was because she had been spending most of her time showing Zuko around.

"Yes, please sit." Katara felt like she had as a kid when she was in trouble.

Kanna sat across from Katara and studied her granddaughter. She looked so much like her mother; she had grown so much since she left with Aang to help save the world. She thought the girl had gained some sense along the way but considering her recent announcement, Kanna thought otherwise.

"You're serious about that Fire Nation boy?" Kanna asked.

"If you mean Zuko, who happens to be the Fire Lord, then yes, I'd say I'm pretty serious as I've accepted his proposal and right now he's working on a better necklace for me." The first attempt had looked even worse than Sokka's first attempt at a betrothal necklace for Suki.

"Katara I want you to think about this. Longer than you may want to. I'm not sure if this is the right decision."

"Why wouldn't it be? I love him Gran Gran and he loves me. He makes me happy," she lowered her head, "I thought you wanted that for me."

"I do, my little penguin, but he's Fire Nation. I don't think he's the best there is for you."

Katara looked up and Kanna saw her granddaughter's eyes harden. "_What_?" Katara spat.

"He's Fire Nation and not just any Fire Nation but the Fire Lord. Katara look what they did to your Tribe. They took away all our benders, locked them up from what I've learned. It was horrible, Katara. They sent the raid that killed your mother, they've tried to take over the world and we've lost too many warriors fighting them," Kanna was just beginning. "You're Water Tribe. You'll wither there. You need a good Water Tribe husband not some firebender who'll only burn you. "

"He won't! Gran he's different than what you think. He took me to find who killed Mom-"

"Do you know how dangerous that was? You could have died!"

"And going off with Aang was different how?"

"He's the Avatar, he would protect you. Don't forget that Zuko was the cause of danger before. Katara listen," Kanna spoke softly as she moved next to her seething granddaughter. She sat in front of her and looked directly into Katara's eyes. "You are the last hope of the South. Your waterbending was the first in a decade and brought hope to everyone. Leaving for the Fire Nation would be letting them take that hope away again."

"Gran Gran," Katara answered softly, "I know there are more waterbenders now. I'm not the last one."

"Who will teach them? Pakku isn't going to live forever, no matter how hard he tries. But you can teach them; we need you to be our Master. Think about teaching your own little penguins to waterbend here. Do you think he would let you waterbend in the Fire Nation? Do you think you'll even have waterbenders there? And what if you have waterbenders? He's not going to want them, he'll want firebenders. He'll look down on them and cast them out-"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT ABOUT ZUKO!" Katara jumped to her feet and glared down at her grandmother. "Say anything else you like about how the Fire Nation is full of horrible people, how I'll just die there, and how they only know how to conquer and kill rather than love and anything else you've been told without even thinking of them as people but don't ever say that Zuko would do that to one of his children. He knows what having a bad father is like and we've talked about this. He's going to try his hardest and I'm going to be there to help him. Our children will be loved by both their parents whether they bend fire or water or nothing at all." She turned and stomped out of hut. Kanna heard a _thump_ as half her door way was covered in snow from Katara's bending.

A moment later Pakku walked in after clearing the entrance. "I see that went well. I heard her outside."

"She's being terribly unreasonable and I'm just trying to protect her from those monsters."

"Kanna have you even talked to the boy? His uncle vouches for him and from everything I've heard the boy is doing the best he can to keep his nation under control and bring peace to the world," Pakku tried to reason with her.

"That doesn't change the fact that he's Fire Nation." Pakku knew exactly where Katara got her stubborn streak.

"And she's your granddaughter. She's going to do what she wants and she believe in him. Maybe you should give him a chance. I'm not saying that we should trust the boy but it is her decision and she's going to do what she wants whether you like it or not. Put aside whatever prejudices you have for one moment and just watch how they interact." Pakku really couldn't believe he was defending Zuko but Iroh had asked him to. Pakku had made sure that Zuko respected his favorite pupil though. The boy did and Pakku blessed the union as much as he could. He did hope they had at least one waterbender, Katara deserved to have little waterbenders of her own.

"Fine, I'll watch them together."

"That's all I'm asking dear."

That night Kanna watched the way Zuko and Katara interacted and saw how different he was than she expected. He seemed almost shy at times and made sure to keep a respectable distance from Katara. He asked about tribal customs and said he'd try his best to work some of them into the Fire Nation wedding ceremony. Finally Kanna had to admit that, though she hated the Fire Nation for what they did, Zuko wasn't like the boy that invaded the village and he wasn't forcing Katara into anything. Maybe everything she knew about the Fire Nation was wrong.

* * *

**A/N2**: I know a lot of fics have Kanna being all ok with Zuko and the Fire Nation hating Katara but I wanted to do something different. Considering everything Kanna has lived through I can see her having a huge fear and hatred of the Fire Nation and would see Katara wanting to marry Zuko as the Fire Nation stealing the last waterbender again. Hence this. I'm not sure if I liked how it turned out but I've gone through about three drafts of it now. And really x is an annoying letter.


	25. Years

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: Penultimate chapter everyone. I'm kind of sad to see this end. Everyone has been great. I'm going to try to have this finished before Zutara week begins and I have ideas for that so watch out next week!

* * *

0

Newlywed bliss wasn't the best way to describe the first year of marriage for Zuko and Katara. Adolescent best described them. The year was full of secret encounters and one usually hiding while the other tried to clear the room of nosey intruders. Fights, as with any relationship, happened and tended to leave something frozen and something burned. None could deny, however, that the Fire Lord and Lady were happy together.

1

A year was enough to adjust each other's internal clocks. Zuko learned that Katara would be much more active late into the night on full moons while Katara learned that waking up early could have many many benefits and she could still go back to sleep for a few hours.

They survived their first major challenges: a storm that washed out half the rice crop and an assassination attempt on Katara. Zuko, who had weathered his own attempts, quickly took control of that but the rice problem caused more problems. They managed to helped those most effected by the storm and for the first time Katara was thankful for the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom.

2

While Katara and Zuko prepared to go from being the two of them to three of them Zuko worked on trying to bring down the cost of rice. At the suggestion of his wife he began to export steal to the Earth Kingdom in exchange for reduced tariffs on rice.

Nights full of passion slowly turned to nights full of tender love and promises whispered to the seen and unseen. Scrolls on proper baby care began to pour into the Palace as gifts to the expectant parents. They littered the room of the Fire Lord and half of them made the couple laugh out the outrageous suggestions.

Before their third wedding anniversary the Crown Price entered the world at dawn. His parents and nation were thrilled.

3

Suggestions that were once laughed at were tried to some success on the fussy Prince. Even with the lack of sleep Katara couldn't have been happier. She didn't think she could love someone so instantly but her son held a piece of her heart. It warmed her heart to see the most important man in her life holding the other most important one. Especially when she found them napping, the Prince resting on his father's chest.

The harvest produced an unexpected surplus of rice, which Zuko ordered a portion saved for each village to ration out in times of need. As new crops were planted Zuko began to boast that his son had to be gifted: he walked, said his first word, and got his first tooth in the same month. Clearly ahead of most children. Katara humored him and tried to get her son to stop called everyone "Dada" and say "Mama."

4

A month into their four year of marriage Katara confirmed they would be four soon. Preparations for the new baby began as well as constantly telling their eldest he would be a big brother soon. He started calling everyone Baby and began running away from his parents every chance he got. He usually didn't get very far but they still didn't know how he got to the Palace gates without being noticed.

A minor volcanic eruption rocked the outer islands. Aid was quickly sent to the islands but most saw it as a good omen that the second child of the Fire Lord would definitely be a firebender. The second Prince made his way into the world during an unseasonably cold night. He had his mother's eyes.

The Crown Prince stared at the mass of blankets and little head that he was told was his little brother. "No!" he cried and promptly wriggled out of his father's arms and ran off.

"I'm sure he'll come around," Zuko assured Katara after bringing the boy back.

"With how siblings get along in your family he better."

As their anniversary approached the couple began to feel the strain of two small children, especially when the elder discovered the meaning of mine.

5

The children grew and began to get used to each other. The younger Prince said his first word in the bath screaming "wa-wa!" and splashing everywhere.

The Fire Nation had its first (marginally) uneventful year: no crisis that needed Zuko's immediate attention, no real word of any rebellions, nothing really out of the ordinary.

Katara and Zuko began to drift apart. Stolen kisses had stopped long ago but now even private ones were dwindling. They were close in public, always smiling and one of them with a child in their arms, smiling for their people. In private they slept on opposite sides of the bed until Katara gave up and began sleeping in the rooms dedicated to the Fire Lady.

They talked mostly about the children and political matters while both not knowing how to say they missed the other.

6

The Royal Family planned a trip to Ba Sing Se to visit and discuss matters with the Earth King as well as see Iroh. After the obligatory drudgery of the formal functions the family visited The Jasmine Dragon. Iroh looked at his nephew and niece-in-law and watched the forced closeness and lonely looks.

"How about I take care of the children for a week while you two take a vacation. I heard they opened a nice resort at Lake Laogai."

"They did what?" Katara remembered the trigger phrase the Dai Li used.

"I know, I thought it was strange too. Apparently the area is very nice and it was an easy way to find out who still lingered under the effects of the Dai Li. A thriving business and a way to help people, the best of both worlds. I can see you two need some time alone and I won't take no for an answer. I'm sure the boys have a nurse that can help me out. Besides, someone needs to begin teaching them about tea while they're young."

Plans were made and Zuko and Katara were sent on a slightly forced vacation. They didn't speak on the way there, instead they looked out opposite windows in the coach. They arrived in late afternoon and took dinner in their rooms in silence. Bed was routine, each of them curled up on opposite sides of the bed.

Over breakfast Katara suggested they go swimming to pass the time. She took her swim suite into the bathroom to change. Zuko wondered when they had stopped changing in front of each other.

When she came out Zuko finally admitted to himself how much he missed her.

"I missed you," he said softly.

"I wasn't in the bathroom that long Zuko," she replied with a resigned tone.

"No, I've missed _you_. I miss my Katara, my wife," he walked right in front of her, taking her hand in his, "my lover." This was the closest they had been in private in awhile.

Katara looked into his eyes. "I missed my lover too."

"Well we have a week, let's start with spending the day together. Like a date," Zuko suggested feeling that they needed sometime together before resuming amorous activities.

"Sounds fun."

They spent the day together becoming reacquainted with how to be a couple without forcing it. By the end of the day Katara was laughing at some of Zuko's horribly overly romantic phrases. ("Flowers bloom for you." "Your smile could out shine the sun.") In return he tackled her onto the bed. Playful wrestling turned to kissing and kissing easily turned to loving. They spent the rest of the week relearning the spots that made the other gasp and moan.

Returning to Ba Sing Se they thanked Iroh profusely for the week alone. Later they did slightly regret leaving the boys with their grandfather when they claimed anytime they thought their tea was made wrong.

7

Their daughter, a souvenir from their trip to Lake Laogai, screamed into the world two months after their seventh wedding anniversary. Her elder brothers complained that she was a sister and not a brother.

Few reports graced the Fire Lord's desk about rebel groups forming in some of the poorer cities. He sent extra rice to them as well as the medical aid Katara suggested.

The lovers made time for themselves amid the cries of a newborn and the troubles of toddlers.

8

The first time the Crown Prince bent fire he was throwing a tantrum at his sister's first birthday party. His parents weren't sure what to do: how could they praise his bending while still telling him it was wrong to complain about which piece of cake he got?

Instead, a few days later, Zuko sat him down and began talking about the basics of firebending and how control was the greatest strength a firebender could have.

Reports of unrest grew: crops weren't terrible but they weren't great, prices of ordinary goods were steadily creeping upwards and murmurs of how good the old days were began to spread. Zuko sent some of his men to see how true the rumors were. He began discussing with Katara plans in case things became serious. She refused to go along with any of them that involved her and the children leaving.

9

The first intelligence reports came back and Zuko began to plead with Katara to take the children somewhere. Most of the ire was directed at him but he had too many reports of plans to first assassinate the children than himself.

After one rather loud fight they were silently eating dinner when their second son bent tea at his older brother. Katara cradled her head in her hands muttering "can I please have one of my children bend for the first time without me having to scold them for their behavior?" while Zuko laughed.

After seeing the reports for herself and a little more yelling and some personal convincing from Zuko, Katara and the children took a trip to Kyoshi where her brother and sister-in-law were visiting Suki's family.

10

On the morning of their tenth wedding anniversary, curled up in bed, Zuko laced his fingers through Katara's and rested them on her pregnant belly. "Happy anniversary," he whispered into her ear. Katara shivered like the she had the first time he had done that.


	26. Zoo

**Disclaimer**: Don't own.

**A/N**: It's over. I…don't know how to feel about this. Thank you to everyone who has stuck by the whole way. You guys have been awesome!

* * *

Every time the Fire Nation Royal family visited Ba Sing Se they would visit the zoo Avatar Aang created. As the family expanded these trips became much more about keeping all the children together rather than actually seeing the animals. The one thing that always struck Zuko about the zoo, however, was how loud it seemed and how messy some of the habitats were (all right, mostly he wondered how the hog monkeys could make a mess that big and make it smell _that bad_). No matter how bad some of the messes his children created the zoo always made him feel better about their disasters.

This was the first time he believed the hog monkeys would have destroyed _less_ than what his children did. The family wing of the Palace looked utterly demolished. Scorch marks and water stains marred the walls and the curtains were either soaked (_was that ink?_) or charred. Twigs and leaves littered the hall and out to the gardens. Those weren't much better: there were the tell tale marks of fireballs and water whips. Apparently his little waterbenders were more creative than he gave them credit for: they used ink and paint to bend as well as water.

The culprits slowly emerged from their hiding places heads down. It seemed there were two teams divided based on the elements they bent.

"Weren't you just bragging about how well behaved your children are?" Master Pakku remarked. The situation was bad enough but on top of everything Katara's family was here to witness the event. And she was out helping at the hospital (a letter arrived earlier that morning asking for her help with a difficult birth). Zuko hated having to discipline the kids alone.

"I want all of you in front of me right now," he voice was deathly calm, a tone he usually reserved for council meetings where he wanted to burn everyone of his councilmen for being idiots. Four out of five lined up in front of him. "Where's your little brother?"

"He's hiding. We're supposed to find him before the others do. The team who finds him wins and proves who the better benders are," his youngest daughter explained. She had just begun waterbending three months ago and her idea of practicing was bending any form of liquid at anyone near her.

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose while his brother-in-law and father-in-law laughed rather loudly. "Who's idea was this?"

They pointed to Marukku. He glared at his siblings. "It was Kwa mai's idea! She wanted to play a game with bending! This was what I could come up with," he huffed.

Zuko turned to his eldest who, at fourteen, should have known better. "You didn't stop them because?"

"They needed even teams?" The Crown Prince responded.

"At least you know he's fair," Hakoda offered while trying to hold back his laughter.

"Who thought Lee should be the bait?"

His eldest daughter piped up. "He can't bend yet. Plus he's only three, how far can he go?" Zuko distinctly remembered when she managed to somehow wonder all the way home from the market on Ember Island when she was that age but now was not the time to remind her of it.

"Go find him. Now!" His children scattered.

"I wonder who was winning," Hakoda commented as they watched the children flee.

"Isn't it obvious Dad? The waterbenders were. That's why Zuko had to stop the game," Sokka said.

"For their birthdays I'm getting your children the most annoying things I can find and giving them two of whatever it is," Zuko promised.


End file.
